{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_18187/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_18187","id":"gutenberg_18187","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18187","summary":null,"tags":["Bible. Old Testament -- Textbooks","Category: Archaeology & Anthropology","Category: History - Ancient","Category: History - Religious","Jews -- Social life and customs","Judaism"],"text":"Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Jeannie Howse and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n * * * * *\n\n +--------------------------------------------------------------+\n | Transcriber's Notes: |\n | |\n | Italicized text surrounded by _text_ |\n | Bolded text surrounded by =text= |\n | |\n | A number of obvious typographical errors have been corrected |\n | in this text. For a complete list, please see the bottom of |\n | this document. |\n | |\n +--------------------------------------------------------------+\n\n\n\n\nHEBREW LIFE AND\nTIMES\n\n\nHAROLD B. HUNTING\n\n\nABINGDON-COKESBURY PRESS\n\nNEW YORK NASHVILLE\n\n\n\n\nCopyright, MCMXXI, by\nHAROLD B. HUNTING\n\nAll Rights Reserved\n\n\nPrinted in the United States of America\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\nCHAPTER PAGE\n\n FOREWORD 7\n\n I. SHEPHERDS ON THE BORDER OF THE DESERT 9\n\n II. HOME LIFE IN THE TENTS 15\n\n III. DESERT PILGRIMS 22\n\n IV. A STRUGGLE AGAINST TYRANNY 28\n\n V. A GREAT DELIVERANCE 34\n\n VI. FROM THE DESERT INTO CANAAN 39\n\n VII. LEARNING TO BE FARMERS 44\n\n VIII. VILLAGE LIFE IN CANAAN 49\n\n IX. KEEPING HOUSE INSTEAD OF CAMPING OUT 55\n\n X. MORAL VICTORIES IN CANAAN 60\n\n XI. LESSONS IN COOPERATION 66\n\n XII. EXPERIMENTS IN GOVERNMENT 70\n\n XIII. THE NATION UNDER DAVID AND SOLOMON 76\n\n XIV. THE WARS OF KINGS AND THE PEOPLE'S SORROWS 82\n\n XV. A NEW KIND OF RELIGION 88\n\n XVI. A NEW KIND OF WORSHIP 94\n\n XVII. JEHOVAH NOT A GOD OF ANGER 99\n\n XVIII. ONE JUST GOD OVER ALL PEOPLES 103\n\n XIX. A REVISED LAW OF MOSES 108\n\n XX. A PROPHET WHO WOULD NOT COMPROMISE 114\n\n XXI. KEEPING THE FAITH IN A STRANGE LAND 120\n\n XXII. UNDYING HOPES OF THE JEWS 127\n\n XXIII. THE GOOD DAYS OF NEHEMIAH 134\n\n XXIV. HYMN AND PRAYER BOOKS FOR THE NEW WORSHIP 140\n\n XXV. A NARROW KIND OF PATRIOTISM 146\n\n XXVI. A BROAD-MINDED AND NOBLE PATRIOTISM 151\n\n XXVII. OUTDOOR TEACHERS AMONG THE JEWS 155\n\nXXVIII. BOOK LEARNING AMONG THE JEWS 161\n\n XXIX. NEW OPPRESSORS AND NEW WARS FOR FREEDOM 167\n\n XXX. THE DISCONTENT OF THE JEWS UNDER ROMAN RULE 172\n\n XXXI. JEWISH HOPES MADE GREATER BY JESUS 176\n\n XXXII. A THOUSAND YEARS OF A NATION'S QUEST 182\n\n REVIEW AND TEST QUESTIONS 185\n\n\n\n\nLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS\n\n\n FACING PAGE\n\nA DARIC, OR PIECE OF MONEY COINED BY DARIUS,\nOne of the Earliest Specimens of Coined Money 10\n\nANCIENT HEBREW WEIGHTS FOR BALANCES 10\n\nHEBREW DRY AND LIQUID MEASURES 10\n\nBRONZE NEEDLES AND PINS FROM RUINS OF ANCIENT\nCANAANITE CITY 16\n\nCANAANITE NURSERY BOTTLES (Clay) 16\n\nCANAANITE SILVER LADLE 16\n\nCANAANITE FORKS 16\n\nEGYPTIAN PLOWING 44\n\nEGYPTIANS THRESHING AND WINNOWING 44\n\nEGYPTIAN OR HEBREW THRESHING FLOOR 44\n\nAN EGYPTIAN REAPING 48\n\nCANAANITE HOES 48\n\nCANAANITE SICKLE 48\n\nCANAANITE OR HEBREW PLOWSHARES 48\n\nMODERN ARAB WOMAN SPINNING 52\n\nANCIENT HEBREW DOOR KEY 52\n\nHEBREW NEEDLES OF BONE 52\n\nSMALLER KEY 52\n\nCANAANITE CHISEL (Bronze) 76\n\nCANAANITE FILE 76\n\nVERY ANCIENT CANAANITE FLINT, FOR MAKING STONE KNIVES 76\n\nBRONZE HAMMERHEAD 76\n\nBONE AWL HANDLE 76\n\nA FISH-HOOK 76\n\nCANAANITE WHETSTONES 76\n\nCANAANITE OR HEBREW NAILS 76\n\nREMAINS OF WALLS OF THE CANAANITE CITY, MEGIDDO 134\n\nPART OF CITY WALL AND GATE, SAMARIA 134\n\nCANAANITE PIPE OR FIFE 144\n\nAN EGYPTIAN HARP 144\n\nAN ASSYRIAN UPRIGHT HARP 144\n\nAN ASSYRIAN HORIZONTAL HARP 144\n\nA BABYLONIAN HARP 144\n\nJEWISH HARPS ON COINS OF BAR COCHBA, 132-135 A.D. 144\n\nASSYRIAN DULCIMER 144\n\n\n\n\nFOREWORD\n\n\nMost histories have been histories of kings and emperors. The daily\nlife of the common people--their joys and sorrows, their hopes,\nachievements, and ideals--has been buried in oblivion. The historical\nnarratives of the Bible are, indeed, to a great extent an exception to\nthis rule. They tell us much about the everyday life of peasants and\nslaves. The Bible's chief heroes were not kings nor nobles. Its\nsupreme Hero was a peasant workingman. But we have not always studied\nthe Bible from this point of view. In this course we shall try to\nreconstruct for ourselves the story of the Hebrew people as an account\nof Hebrew shepherds, farmers, and such like: what oppressions they\nendured; how they were delivered; and above all what ideals of\nrighteousness and truth and mercy they cherished, and how they came to\nthink and feel about God. It makes little difference to us what\nparticular idler at any particular time sat in the palace at Jerusalem\nsending forth tax-collectors to raise funds for his luxuries. It is of\nvery great interest and concern to us if there were daughters like\nRuth in the barley fields of Bethlehem, if shepherds tended their\nflocks in that same country who were so fine in heart and simple in\nfaith that to them or their children visions of angels might appear\ntelling of a Saviour of the world. On such as these, in this study,\nlet us as far as possible fix our attention.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nSHEPHERDS ON THE BORDER OF THE DESERT\n\n\nAncient Arabia is the home of that branch of the white race known as\nthe Semitic. Here on the fertile fringes of well-watered land\nsurrounding the great central desert lived the Phoenicians, the\nAssyrians, the Babylonians, and the Canaanites who, before the\nHebrews, inhabited Palestine. So little intermixing of races has there\nbeen that the Arabs of to-day, like those of the time of Abraham, are\nSemites.\n\nThe Hebrew people are an offshoot of this same Semitic group. They\nbegan their career as a tribe of shepherds on the border of the north\nArabian desert. The Arab shepherds of to-day, still living in tents\nand wandering to and fro on the fringes of the settled territory of\nPalestine, or to the south and west of Bagdad, represent almost\nperfectly what the wandering Hebrew shepherds used to be.\n\nThe Arabs of to-day are armed with rifles, whereas Abraham's warriors\ncut down their enemies with bronze swords. Otherwise, in customs,\nsuperstitions, and even to some extent in language, the modern desert\nArabs may stand for the ancient Hebrews in their earliest period. They\nwere nomads with no settled homes. Every rainy season they led out\ntheir flocks into the valleys where the fresh green of the new grass\nwas crowding back the desert brown. All through the spring and early\nsummer they went from spring to spring, and from pasture to pasture\nseeking the greenest and tenderest grass. Then as the dry season came\non and the barren waste came creeping back they also worked their way\nback toward the more settled farm lands, until autumn found them\nselling their wool to the nearby farmers and townspeople in exchange\nfor wheat and barley and some of the other necessaries of life.\n\n\nTHE SHEPHERD'S DAILY LIFE\n\nSheep-raising might seem at times a peaceful and even a somewhat\nmonotonous business. The flocks found their own food, grazing in the\npastures. Morning and night they had to be watered, the water being\ndrawn from the well and poured into watering troughs. Once or twice a\nday also the ewes and shegoats had to be milked. When these chores\nwere done it was only necessary to stand guard over the flock and\nprotect them from robbers or wild animals. This, however, had to be\ndone by night as well as by day. On these wide pastures there were no\nsheepfolds into which the animals could be securely herded as on the\nsettled farms. They slept on the ground, under the open sky, and the\nshepherds, like those in Bethlehem, in the story of Jesus' birth, had\nto keep \"watch over their flocks by night.\" So long as no enemies\nappeared there was in such an occupation plenty of time in which to\nthink and dream of God and man and love and duty. Very often, however,\nthe dreamer's reveries were interrupted, and at such times there was\nno lack of excitement.\n\n=Wild beasts.=--There were more beasts of prey in Arabia in those days\nthan there are to-day. In addition to wolves and bears, there were\nmany lions, which are not now found anywhere in the world except in\nAfrica. So the sheepmen had to go well armed, with clubs, swords, and\nspears. We would want a high-powered rifle if we were in danger of\nfacing a lion. The Hebrews defended their flocks against these\npowerful and vicious beasts with only the simplest weapons. Such\nfights were anything but monotonous.\n\n +-------------------------------------------------------------------+\n | [Illustration: A DARIC, OR PIECE OF MONEY COINED BY DARIUS, ONE |\n | OF THE EARLIEST SPECIMENS OF COINED MONEY] |\n | |\n | [Illustration: ANCIENT HEBREW WEIGHTS FOR BALANCES] |\n | |\n | [Illustration: HEBREW DRY AND LIQUID MEASURES] |\n | |\n | Cuts on this page used by permission of the Palestine Exploration |\n | Fund. |\n +-------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\n\nTRIPS TO TOWN\n\nAmong the most interesting events in the lives of the shepherds were\ntheir trips to town, when they sold some of their wool and bought\ngrain, and linen cloth, and trinkets for the babies, and the things\nthey could not find nor make on the grassy plains. The raw wool was\npacked in bags and slung over the backs of donkeys. On other donkeys\nrode two or more of the men of the tribe. Sometimes, perhaps, a small\nboy was taken along on the donkey's back behind his father to see the\nsights. And for him the sights must have been rather wonderful--the\ngreat thick walls of the town, the massive gates, the houses, row on\nrow, and the people, more of them in one street than in the whole\ntribe to which he belonged!\n\n=The market.=--They took their wool, of course, to the open square\nwhere all the merchants sold their goods. Soon buyers appeared who\nwanted wool. It was a long process then, as now, to strike a bargain\nin an Oriental town. It is very impolite to seem to be in a hurry. You\nmust each ask after one another's health, and the health of your\nrespective fathers, and all your ancestors. By and by, you cautiously\ncome around to the subject of wool. How much do you want for your\nwool? At first you don't name a price. You aren't even sure that you\nwant to sell it. Finally you mention a sum about five times as large\nas you expect to get. The buyer in turn offers to pay about a fifth of\nwhat it is worth. After a time you come down a bit on your price. The\nbuyer comes up a bit on his. After an hour or two, or perhaps a half\na day, you compromise and the wool is sold.\n\n=Weighing out the silver or gold.=--In those early days there was no\ncoined money. Silver and gold were used as money, only they had to be\nweighed every time a trade was put through; just as though we were to\nsell so many pounds of flour for so many ounces of silver. The weights\nused were very crude; usually they were merely rough stones from the\nfield with the weight mark scratched on them. The scale generally used\nwas as follows:\n\n 60 shekels = 1 mana.\n 60 manas = 1 talent.\n\nThe shekel was equal to about an ounce, in our modern avoirdupois\nsystem. There was no accurate standard weight anywhere. Honest dealers\ntried to have weights which corresponded to custom. But it was easy to\ncheat by having two sets of weights, one for buying and one for\nselling. So when our shepherds came to town, they had to watch the\nmerchant who bought from them lest he put too heavy a talent weight in\nthe balance with their wool, and too light a shekel-weight in the\nsmaller balance with the silver.\n\n\nTHE HARD SIDE OF SHEPHERD LIFE\n\nThe most precious and uncertain thing in the shepherd's life was\nwater. If in the rainy season the rains were heavy, and the wells and\nbrooks did not dry up too soon in the summer, they had plenty of\ngoat's milk for food, and could bring plenty of wool to market in the\nfall. But if the rains were scant their flocks perished, and actual\nfamine and death stared them in the face. In the dry years many were\nthe tribes that were almost totally wiped out by famine and the\ndiseases that sweep away hungry men. The next year, on the site of\ntheir last camp, strangers would find the bones of men and women and\nlittle children, whitening by the side of the trail. No wonder they\nlooked upon wells and springs as sacred. Surely, they thought, a god\nmust be the giver of those life-giving waters that bubble up so\nmysteriously from the crevices in the rock.\n\n=War with other tribes.=--In addition to their constant struggle to\nmake a living from a somewhat barren land, these shepherds were almost\nconstantly in danger from human enemies. A small, weak tribe, grazing\nits flocks around a good well, was always in danger lest a stronger\ntribe swoop down upon them to kill and plunder. There were many robber\nclans who did little else besides preying on their neighbors and\npassing caravans of traders. Nowhere was there any security. The\ndesert and its borders was a world of bitter hatreds and long-standing\nfeuds. Certain rival tribes fought each other at every opportunity for\ncenturies with a warfare that hesitated at no cruelty or treachery.\n\n\nDESERT RELIGION\n\nSuch a life of eager longings, fierce passions, and dark despair is a\nfertile soil for religion. And these early Hebrew shepherds were\nintensely religious. It is true that in the earliest days the\nfierceness and cruelty of their wars were reflected in the character\nof the gods in whom they believed. They thought of them as doing many\ncruel and selfish things. Yet a people who believe very deeply and\nseriously in their religion, even in an imperfect religion, are sure\nto be a force in the world. Hence it is not surprising that three of\nthe world's greatest religions, Judaism, Christianity, and\nMohammedanism, arose at different times among the wandering shepherds\nof Arabia.\n\n\nSTUDY TOPICS\n\nIt would be well to keep a notebook in which to write the result of\nyour study.\n\n1. Look up in any Bible dictionary, under \"Weights and Measures,\" the\napproximate size of an \"ephah,\" which was the common Hebrew unit of\ndry measure, and \"hin,\" which was their common unit for measuring\nliquids.\n\n2. From the facts given in this chapter, calculate in pounds\navoirdupois, the approximate weight of a talent.\n\n3. To what extent does the Old Testament reflect the experiences of\nshepherd life? Look up \"shepherd\" in any concordance.\n\n4. What are some valuable lessons which great spiritual teachers among\nthe Hebrews learned from their shepherd life? Read Psalm 23.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nHOME LIFE IN THE TENTS\n\n\nMost persons, no matter what their race or country, spend a large\nproportion of their time at home. The home is the center of many\ninterests and activities, and it reflects quite accurately the state\nof civilization of a people. In this chapter let us take a look into\nthe homes of the shepherd Hebrews. We shall visit one of their\nencampments; perhaps we shall be reminded of a camp of the gypsies.\n\n\nA CLUSTER OF BLACK TENTS\n\nHere on a gentle hillside sloping up from a tiny brook, is a cluster\nof ten or a dozen black tents. Further down the valley sheep are\ngrazing. Two or three mongrel dogs rush out to bark at us as we\napproach, until a harsh voice calls them back. A dark man with bare\nbrown arms comes out to meet us, wearing a coarse woolen cloak with\nshort sleeves. Half-naked children peer out from the tent flaps.\n\n=The inside of the tents.=--Our friend is eager to show us hospitality\nand invites us to enter his tent. It is a low, squatting affair, and\nwe have to stoop low to enter the opening in the front. We note that\nthe tent-cloth is a woolen fabric not like our canvas of to-day. It is\nstretched across a center-pole, with supports on the front and back,\nwhile the edges are pinned to the ground much as our tents are. There\nare curtains within the tent partitioning off one part for the men,\nand another for the women and children. There are mats on the ground\nto sit on and to sleep on at night.\n\n\nPREPARING FOOD\n\nLike the housewives of all ages, the Hebrew women have food to\nprepare, and meals to get. Their one great food is milk, not cows'\nmilk, but the milk of goats. A modern traveler tells of meeting an\nArab who in a time of scarcity had lived on milk alone for more than a\nyear.\n\n=A meager diet.=--Besides fresh milk there were then as now a number\nof things which were made from milk. The Hebrews on the desert took\nsome milk and cream and poured it into a bag made of skin, and hung it\nby a stout cord from a pole. One of the women, or a boy, pounded this\nbag until the butter came out. This was their way of churning. Cheese\nalso was a favorite article of diet. The milk was curdled by means of\nthe sour or bitter juices of certain plants, and the curds were then\nsalted and dried in the sun. Curdled milk even more than sweet milk\nwas also used as a drink. It probably tasted like the _kumyss_, or\n_zoolak_, which we can buy in our drug stores or soda fountains.\n\nWe would get very tired of milk and milk products if we had nothing\nelse to eat all the year round; and so did these shepherds. They were\neager to get hold of wheat and barley, whenever they could buy them.\nThe women took the wheat and pounded it with a wooden mallet or a\nstone in a hollow in some larger stone. The coarse meal which they\nmade in this way they mixed with salt and water and baked on hot\nstones before the campfire. Once in a great while it was possible, in\nthis shepherd life, to have a feast with mutton or kid or lamb. But\nmilk and wool were so valuable that the shepherds were very\ncautious about killing their flocks. It was, you see, a very simple\nand healthful diet on which these tent-people lived. But one meal was\npretty much like another. Dinner was like breakfast, and tomorrow's\nmeals would be just like to-day's. It is not strange that they often\nlonged for a change, and looked with envy at the crops of the farmers\nin the settled lands beyond the desert.\n\n +-------------------------------------------------------------------+\n | [Illustration: BRONZE NEEDLES AND PINS FROM RUINS OF ANCIENT |\n | CANAANITE CITY] |\n | |\n | [Illustration: CANAANITE NURSERY BOTTLES (CLAY)] |\n | |\n | [Illustration: CANAANITE SILVER LADLE] |\n | |\n | [Illustration: CANAANITE FORKS] |\n | |\n | Cuts on this page used by permission of the Palestine Exploration |\n | Fund. |\n +-------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\n\nCLOTHING\n\nAnother occupation at which the women worked all day long was the\nmaking of clothing for their families. Most of their garments were\nmade of the wool from their own flocks. First the wool had to be spun\ninto yarn. They did not even have spinning wheels in those days, so a\nspinner took a handful of wool on the end of a stick called a distaff,\nwhich she held in her left hand. With her right hand she hooked into\nthe wool a spindle. This was a round, pointed piece of wood about ten\ninches long with a hook at the pointed end, and with a small piece of\nstone fastened to the other to give momentum in the spinning. With\ndeft fingers the spinner kept this spindle whirling and at the same\ntime kept working the wool down into the thread of yarn which she was\nmaking. As the thread lengthened she wound it around the spindle,\nuntil the wool on the distaff was all gone and she had a great ball of\nyarn.\n\n=Weaving=.--The ancient Egyptians and Babylonians were experts in the\nart of weaving. They had large looms similar to ours, and wove on them\nbeautiful fabrics of linen and wool. The shepherds on the plains no\ndoubt bought these fabrics when they could afford them. But they could\nnot carry these heavy looms around with them from one camp to another,\nand much of the time their own women had to weave whatever cloth they\nhad. The primitive loom they used was made by driving two sticks into\nthe ground, and stretching a row of threads between them, and then\ntediously weaving the cross threads in and out, a thread at a time,\nuntil a yard or so of cloth was finished. Slow work this was, and many\na long day passed before enough cloth could be woven to make a coat\nfor a man or even a boy.\n\nThey managed, however, to get along without nearly so much clothing as\nwe think necessary. The little children, through warm days of summer,\nplayed around the tents almost naked. And the grown people dressed\nvery simply. There were only two garments for either men or women.\nThey wore a long shirt reaching to the knees. This was made by\ndoubling over a strip of cloth, sewing the sides, and cutting out\nholes for arms and neck. The outer garment was a sort of coat, open in\nfront, and gathered about the waist with leather belt. This outer\ngarment was often thrown aside when the wearer was working. It was\nworn in cold weather, however, and was often the poor man's only\nblanket at night. Women's garments were probably a little longer than\nthose of men, but in other respects the same. As for the feet, they\nmostly went barefoot. But on long journeys over rough ground they wore\nsandals of wood or roughly shaped shoes of sheepskin. On the head for\na protection against sun and wind they, like the modern Arab, probably\nwore a sort of large scarf gathered around the neck.\n\n=Making the garments.=--All these garments were cut and sewed by the\nwomen. They had no sewing machines to work with, not even fine steel\nneedles like ours. They used large, coarse needles made of bronze or,\nvery often, of splinters of bone sharpened at one end, with a hole\ndrilled through the other. With such rough tools, and all this work to\nbe done, we can be sure that the wives and daughters of Hebrew\nshepherds did not lack for something to do.\n\n\nFAMILY LIFE\n\nAmong ancient Hebrews family life, from the very beginning, was often\nsweet, kindly, and beautiful. This is shown by the many stories in the\nearly books of the Old Testament which reflect disapproval of\nunbrotherly conduct, or, which hold up kindness and loyalty in family\nlife as a beautiful and praiseworthy thing. Take the story of Joseph.\nIt begins indeed with an unpleasant picture of an unhappy and unloving\nfamily of shepherd brothers. We read of a father's partiality toward\nthe petted favorite, of a spoiled and conceited boy, of the bitter\njealousy of the other brothers, and finally of a crime in which they\nshowed no mercy when they sold their hated rival to a caravan of\ntraders to be taken away, it might be, forever. But the story goes on\nto tell how that same lad, years later, grown to manhood and risen to\na position of extraordinary power and influence in the great kingdom\nof Egypt, not only saved from death by starvation his family,\nincluding those same brothers who had wronged him, but even effected a\ncomplete reconciliation with them and nobly forgave them.\n\nNow, the most notable facts in connection with this story are those\n\"between the lines.\" It is not merely that such and such events are\nsaid to have happened, but that for generations, perhaps centuries,\nHebrew fathers and mothers kept the story of these events alive,\ntelling it over and over again to their children. On numberless days,\nno doubt, in this shepherd life there were bickering and angry words\namong the children by the spring or at meal time, or in their games.\nThe older brothers were tyrannical toward the younger, or one or\nanother cherished black and unforgiving looks toward a brother or\nsister who he thought had done him a wrong. And many a time after such\na day the old father would gather all the family together in the\nevening around the camp fire in front of the tent and would begin to\ntell the story of Joseph. And as the tale went on, with its thrilling\nepisodes, and its touches of pathos leading up at last to the\nwhole-souled generosity and the sweet human tenderness of Joseph, many\na little heart softened, and in the darkness many a little brown hand\nsought a brother's hand in loving reconciliation.\n\n=The tribe as a larger family.=--To some extent the desert shepherds\nof all ages have carried this family spirit into the relations between\nmembers of the tribe as a whole. Since they had to stand together for\nprotection, quarrels between tribesmen were discouraged. Moreover,\nthey were not separated into classes by difference of wealth. There\nwere some who had larger flocks than others, but for the most part all\nmembers of the tribe were equal. Even from among the slaves who were\ncaptured now and then in war there were some who rose to positions of\nhonor. There were no kings nor princes; the chief of the tribe held\nhis position by virtue of his long experience and practical wisdom.\nThe distinction between close blood relationship and the brotherhood\nof membership in the same tribe was not sharply drawn; all were\nbrothers. This is true to-day of all these desert tribes.\n\nOnly a tribe, however, with an unusual capacity for brotherly\naffection and for making social life sweet and harmonious could have\nproduced a Joseph or the story of Joseph, or would have preserved that\nstory in oral form through the centuries until it could be written\ndown. It is worth while looking into the later history of such a\ntribe, and seeing what happened to them and how they thought and\nacted, and what they contributed to the life of the world.\n\n\nSTUDY TOPICS\n\n1. Get some cotton at a drug store, and see if you can spin some\ncotton thread, with a homemade spindle, such as is described in this\nchapter.\n\n2. Who had the harder work among the Hebrew shepherds, the women or\nthe men?\n\n3. Find other stories in Genesis besides the story of Joseph which\nshow how the Hebrews felt in regard to the relations between brothers.\n\n4. Compare the home life in America with the home life of the Hebrews.\nAre American brothers and sisters growing more quarrelsome or more\nkindly and loving toward one another?\n\n5. In what way do the oral traditions of a people throw light on the\nideals and relationships they most valued?\n\n6. Compare the dietary available to Americans with that of the ancient\nHebrews.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nDESERT PILGRIMS\n\n\nAccording to one of the Hebrew traditions recorded in the book of\nGenesis, the earliest home of their ancestors was Ur of the Chaldees.\nThis was one of the leading cities of ancient Babylonia. It was\nsituated southwest of the Euphrates River, near the plains which were\nthe nation's chief grazing grounds. And it is possible that of the\nshepherds who brought their sheep to market in Ur some were, indeed,\namong the ancestors of the Hebrews.\n\n\nBABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION\n\nBabylonia is one of the two lands (Egypt being the other) where human\ncivilization began. This rich alluvial plain, lying between the lower\nTigris and the lower Euphrates Rivers, became the home of a gifted\nrace which at least in its later history through intermarriage was in\npart Semitic and thus related to the Hebrews. Several thousand years\nbefore Christ the people of this land began to till the soil, to\ncontrol the floods in the rivers by means of irrigating canals, to\nmake bricks out of the abundant clay and with them to build houses and\ncities. They also invented a system of writing upon clay tablets.\nThese were baked in the sun after the letters were inscribed.\nCommercial records and written laws and histories were thus made\npossible and in time a varied literature was created. Whole libraries\nof these baked clay tablets have been unearthed and deciphered by\nmodern investigators.\n\n=Evidences of ancient culture.=--By B.C. 4000 there flourished on the\nplains of Babylonia a splendid civilization in many ways similar to\nours to-day. The people raised enormous crops of grain and exported it\nby ship and caravan to distant lands. They had developed to a high\npoint the arts of the weaver, the dyer, the potter, the metal worker,\nand the carpenter. They had devised a system of geometry for the\nmeasuring of their wheat fields and city streets. Through astronomy\nthey had worked out the calendar of days, weeks, months, and years\nwhich with modifications we still use. They had erected magnificent\ntemples to their gods. From translations of the inscriptions on their\nclay tablets we can gain a clear knowledge of their life and customs.\nHere, for example, is a translation of part of a letter from a son to\na father asking for more money: \"My father, you said, 'When I shall go\nto Dur-Ammi-Zaduga, I will send you a sheep and five minas of silver.'\nBut you have not sent. Let my father send and let not my heart be\nvexed.... To the gods Shamash and Marduk I pray for my father.\" If we\nforget the outlandish-sounding names, how natural this seems! How like\nour boys was this boy who wrote the queer-looking characters on this\nbit of clay which we may hold in our hand!\n\n\nTHE FAULTS OF THE BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION\n\nWith all their gifts and achievements there were certain great evils\nin Babylonian life. For one thing they were inclined to be greedy and\ncovetous. They lived on a soil almost incredibly rich, and they were\nconstantly increasing their wealth by trade. Babylonian merchants or\ntheir agents were to be found in almost every city and town of western\nAsia and perhaps even as far east as China. Of the vast mass of their\nwritten records which have been collected in our museums, the\nmajority are business documents and records of contracts. Many of them\ntell the story of hard bargains. Professor Maspero declares that these\nrecords \"reveal to us a people greedy of gain, exacting, and almost\nexclusively absorbed by material concerns.\"\n\n=Slavery.=--Moreover, the wealth of the nation was not fairly\ndistributed but was more and more in the hands of the favored few, the\ngreat nobles, and their friends. The fields were not tilled by\nindependent farmers. There were, instead, a few great estates which\nwere rented out to tenants. The actual work, both on the fields and in\nthe towns, was more and more performed by slaves. Some of these were\ncaptives who had been taken in war. Others were native Babylonians who\nhad been sold into slavery for debt. So it had come about that\nBabylonian society had set like plaster into a hard mold with the king\nand the wealthy nobles on top and the poor peasants and slaves below.\nThis state of things was fastened all the more firmly on the people by\nstrong kings such as Hammurabi, who lived about B.C. 2000 and who\nunified the country under a powerful central government with his own\ncity, Babylon, as the capital.\n\n\nA SHEPHERD WITH IDEALS\n\nAbout the time of Hammurabi's reign, if we follow the account related\nin the book of Genesis, there lived among the nomads on the plains\nwest of the city of Ur a man named Abraham. If Hammurabi ever heard of\nhim, which is improbable, he looked down upon him as of no account.\nYet Abraham wielded a greater influence for the future welfare of\nhumanity than all the princes of Babylon. For, discontented with\nBabylonian life, he was the earliest pioneer in a movement toward a\ncivilization of a different and better type. And the sons of Hammurabi\nhave yet to reckon with Abraham and his ambitions.\n\n=Discontent among the shepherds.=--Many of Abraham's people, no doubt,\nwere discontented in Babylonia. A shepherd's life is monotonous and\nhard. When they went to market they saw comforts and luxuries on every\nhand. Yet the money they received from the wool merchants of Ur gave\nno promise of larger opportunities in life for any shepherd boy. So,\nat length when Abraham said to them, \"Come, let us leave this\ncountry,\" they were ready to answer, \"Lead on, and we will follow!\" So\nit came to pass that Abraham's clan set out northwest, toward Haran,\nin what is now called Mesopotamia, and finally after some years of\nmigration found themselves camping on the hillsides of Canaan,\nsoutheast of the Mediterranean Sea.\n\n=Ideals represented in Abraham.=--But it is not as a leader of fortune\nhunters that Abraham is pictured in the Bible. No doubt he and his\nclansmen hoped to better their condition. But Abraham was a dreamer\nand a man of deep religious faith. He believed that he was being\nguided by his God. And he believed that in accordance with God's plan\nhis descendants in the land to which they had come would become a\ngreat nation. Best of all, it seems probable that he dreamed of a\nnation different from Babylonia. Certainly he is described as a\ndifferent kind of a man from the typical Babylonian. In some respects,\nto be sure, judging by our Christian standards, he had serious\nshortcomings. He did not scruple to deceive a foreigner, nor to treat\nharshly a slave. His ideas as to the character of God were far below\nthose revealed by Christ. Yet he had the Hebrew gift for home and\nfamily life. He was a good father to his son. And he put a higher\nvalue on personal friendship and kindly family relations than on\nproperty interests. When his herdsmen quarreled with those of his\nnephew, Lot, he said to the latter with dignified generosity and\ncommon sense, \"Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and\nthee ... for we are brethren. Is not the whole land before thee?\nSeparate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left\nhand, then I will go to the right; or if thou take the right hand,\nthen I will go to the left.\" Just what Abraham looked forward to, we,\nof course, do not know. Probably his ideas were vague. Yet it seems\nthat such men as he must have dreamed of a nation great in faith as\nwell as in material wealth; a nation in which money would not be\nconsidered more important than justice and kindness; in which home\nlife might be sweet and loving, free from the fear of want or the\nblighting influence of greed; and in which the door of opportunity\nwould always be kept open even for the humblest.\n\nAt any rate, some centuries after the time when Abraham is supposed to\nhave lived, we find a group of shepherd tribes living in and around\nCanaan, who believed themselves to be descended from the twelve sons\nof Jacob, Abraham's grandson, and among whom there was the tradition\nof a divinely guided pilgrimage from Babylonia to Canaan under\nAbraham's leadership just as we have described. It is a great thing to\nhave memories of noble parents and traditions of heroic ancestors.\nThese the Hebrews had from the very beginning.\n\n\nSTUDY TOPICS\n\n1. Look up in any good Bible dictionary, the articles on Babylonia and\nHammurabi.\n\n2. Read Genesis 12, 15, and 24 and form your own opinion of Abraham as\na husband and father.\n\n3. What was Abraham's most valuable contribution to history?\n\n4. From any map of western Asia, draw a sketch map showing the Nile,\nEuphrates, and Tigris Rivers, the Mediterranean Sea, and the general\ndirection of Abraham's pilgrimage.\n\n5. Where in the Bible is found the sentence spoken by Abraham to Lot,\nand quoted in this chapter?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nA STRUGGLE AGAINST TYRANNY\n\n\nAlthough they had escaped for a time from Babylonian tyranny, the\ndescendants of Abraham in Canaan found themselves somewhat within the\nrange of the influence of the other great civilized power of that day,\nthat is, Egypt. Egyptian officers collected tribute from rich\nCanaanite cities. The roads that led to Egypt were thronged with\ncaravans going to and fro. By and by, a series of dry seasons drove\nseveral of the Hebrew tribes down these highways to Egypt in the\nsearch of food. The story of Joseph tells how they settled there.[1]\nThey were hospitably received by the king (or Pharaoh, which was the\nEgyptian word for \"king\"), and were allowed to pasture their flocks on\nthe plains called the land of Goshen in the extreme northeast of the\ncountry west of what we now call the Isthmus of Suez. For some decades\nor more they lived here, following their old occupation--sheep-raising.\n\n=Egyptian civilization.=--Egypt was in many ways like Babylonia. In\nEgypt too a great civilization had sprung up many millenniums before\nChrist. In some ways it was an even greater civilization than that of\nBabylonia. Egyptian sculptors and architects erected stone temples\nwhose grandeur has never been surpassed. Many of them are still\nstanding and are among the world's treasures. It would seem that there\nwas somewhat more of love of beauty and somewhat less of greed for\nmoney among the Egyptians than among the Babylonians.\n\n\nTHE ACCESSION OF RAMESES II\n\nThere came to the throne of Egypt about B.C. 1200 a man of\nextraordinary vanity and selfish ambition known as Rameses II. He\nwished to build more temples in Egypt than any other king had ever\nbuilt, so that wherever the traveler might turn people would point to\nthis or that great building and say Rameses II built that. To put up\nthese buildings he enslaved his people, compelling them to labor\nwithout pay. To raise the funds for building materials he made war on\nhis neighbors, especially the Hittites in western Asia north of\nCanaan. Again and again Hebrew children would see the dust of marching\narmies over the roads past their pastures and men would say, \"Rameses\nis going to war again.\" And by and by, weeks or months later, the\nsoldiers would return with tales of bloody battles and sometimes laden\nwith spoils.\n\n=Enslavement of the Hebrews.=--Now, wars usually breed more wars.\nRameses having attacked the Hittites was afraid they would attack him.\nEgypt was indeed very well protected from attack. There was only one\ngateway into the country, and that was by way of the narrow Isthmus of\nSuez. And there were a wall and a row of fortresses across the\nisthmus. But who were those shepherd tribes living just west of the\nisthmus inside the gateway? They are Hebrews, Rameses was told. They\nare immigrants from Canaan. \"Look out for them,\" said Rameses. \"If\nthey came from Canaan, they may favor the Hittites and help them to\nget past my fortresses into Egypt. Let them be put at work so that\nthey will have no time for plots.\"\n\nRameses was planning just then to build two large granary cities near\nthe northeastern border to be a base of supplies for his armies on\ntheir campaigns into Asia. One was to be called Pithom.[2]\n\nSo one day armed men came to the Hebrew tents and the order was given\nto send such and such a number of men to work in the brick-molds of\nPa-Tum. And they had to go. The women and the children had to care for\nthe sheep while most of their men trod the clay and straw in the brick\nmolds at Pa-Tum and carried heavy loads of brick on their shoulders to\nthe masons on the walls. Of course the sheep suffered for lack of\ncare. The children also pined from neglect. Life for the Hebrews\nbecame a grinding treadmill of hardship and weariness and drudgery.\n\n\nTHE BOYHOOD AND YOUTH OF MOSES\n\nDuring this time of oppression a Hebrew baby boy was by chance adopted\nby one of the princesses in Pharaoh's court and brought up by his own\nmother as his nurse. He was given an Egyptian name with the common\nEgyptian ending Mesu or M-ses, as in Rameses. The boy was given all\nthe educational advantages that the Egyptian palace could offer. But\nall the time in secret from his mother he was learning the story of\nhis own people and their wrongs, and was being trained to hate their\noppressors. One day after he had grown to manhood he went down to the\ncity of Pa-Tum to see the work on the new granaries which were being\nbuilt. Here he saw one of his own people being flogged by an Egyptian\noverseer. In a fury he leaped to the man's defense and killed the\nEgyptian. Of course Rameses heard of it, and Moses had to flee from\nEgypt into the desert. In the desert he found a shepherd clan related\nto the Hebrews and lived there for some years brooding over the hard\nplight of his people.\n\n=Moses' call and the struggle for freedom.=--One day in the desert,\nMoses heard from a passing caravan that old Rameses II was dead. Like\na flame that burned but did not consume the thought came to him: \"Now\nis your chance! The king and his officers will not know about you. Go\nback to Egypt and lead your kinsmen out to freedom. This is God's call\nand God will help you.\"\n\nSo back to Egypt he went. First, he undertook to rally his own people,\npromising the help of their God, Jehovah. It was a dangerous\nundertaking that he proposed. The kings of Egypt were accustomed to\nmake short work of those who resisted their authority. Moreover, these\nHebrews had been slaves for years, and their spirits might have been\ncowed and broken. Yet they believed in Moses and his assurances and\naccepted him as their leader.\n\nSoon thereafter Moses and his brother Aaron went boldly to the palace\nof the Pharaoh and declared to him that Jehovah, the God of the\nHebrews, had commanded that the Hebrews be allowed to hold a religious\nfestival in the desert to offer sacrifices unto him as their God. The\nplan no doubt was that the people should escape once they were outside\nthe boundaries of Egypt; Moses evidently considered any method\njustifiable in the effort to outwit the oppressor. But the Pharaoh\nanswered, \"Who is Jehovah that I should hearken to his voice to let\nIsrael go?\" The request was sharply refused. It is surprising that\nMoses himself was not arrested and imprisoned on the spot. Perhaps he\nstill had friends in the Egyptian court. Or perhaps the Egyptians had\na certain reverence for him as a messenger from a god, even though\nthey did not grant his demands.\n\n=Bricks without straw.=--At first it seemed that Moses had failed. For\ninstead of the longed-for freedom, the toiling Hebrews found that a\nstill heavier burden of work was laid upon them. In the manufacture of\nsun-dried brick it is necessary to mix straw with the clay in the\nmolds, the fibers giving a tougher quality to the product. Previously\nthe straw for this purpose had been furnished by the Egyptians. But\nnow the order was, \"Go yourselves, get straw where you can find it.\"\nSo they had to go and hunt through the surrounding fields for old\nrefuse straw, in rotting ricks and compost heaps. Yet the same number\nof bricks was required as before, with a whipping in case of failure.\n\nThe granaries in Pa-Tum and Rameses were excavated many years ago from\nbeneath the sands of Egypt, and their ruined walls may still be seen\nby tourists. It is noticeable that the upper tiers in the walls are\nmade of bricks of a very poor quality as compared to those in the\nlower tiers. Evidently, the Hebrews got through the work somehow each\nday, putting very little straw in the clay, or sometimes none at all.\n\nBut they wished they had never heard of Moses, and they reproached him\nfor \"making them hateful in the eyes of Pharaoh.\" In the first round\nof the fight Moses and freedom had lost; Pharaoh and slavery had won.\nBut the end was not yet.\n\n\nSTUDY TOPICS\n\n1. Look up in any good Bible dictionary, the article on Egypt; or read\nthe summary of Egyptian history in some recent general history.\n\n2. Draw a map of Egypt, locating approximately the place where the\nHebrews worked.\n\n3. In what special ways was Moses well trained to be an emancipator\nfor his people?\n\n4. Are there workers to-day who are in any form of slavery which may\nbe compared to that of the Hebrews in Egypt?\n\n5. Are there any Pharaohs to-day? Any Moseses?\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] See Chapter I, and Genesis 46 and 47.\n\n[2] Exodus I. 1-11, or Pa-Tum in Egyptian; the other Rameses, after\nthe king himself. It was decided to compel the Hebrews to do the work\nof brickmaking for these new cities.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nA GREAT DELIVERANCE\n\n\nEgypt has never been a health resort. The intensely hot summers breed\ngerms of disease, and also the insects which often carry them.\nThroughout its history the country has been ravaged periodically by\nfearful epidemics. A series of these pestilences predicted by Moses\nand declared to be Jehovah's punishment for the enslavement of the\nIsraelites, made it possible for him to lead his people out of\nslavery. So severe were the plagues that the government was for a time\ndisorganized. Taking advantage of their opportunity, the Hebrews\nsuddenly gathered up their possessions and set out toward the desert,\ndriving their sheep and goats before them. In spite of the large\nfigures given in some passages of Exodus, other statements indicate\nthat they were not very numerous, a few thousand at most, and they\ndoubtless hoped to slip out past the border fortresses, at night,\nunnoticed. As they approached the border, however, news came that they\nwere being pursued by a troop of horsemen. This meant, of course, that\na watch would be made for them at the fortresses also. They were\ncaught in a trap, and turned in despair upon Moses, who could only\nonce more assure them that Jehovah was leading them, and would somehow\nopen the way.\n\n\nTHE STRONG EAST WIND AND ITS RESULT\n\nThat night they encamped on the western shore of one of the shallow\nbays or lakes at the head of the Red Sea. To the east was the water.\nNorth of the lake the wall and the line of fortresses began. Behind\nthem they could already see where their pursuers were camping for the\nnight. In the morning--terror, death, and return to slavery!\n\n=A path through the sea.=--During the night, however, someone came in\nfrom the shore of the lake with the astonishing news that it was going\ndry. A strong east wind was blowing, with an effect often observed by\nmodern travelers, namely, that the comparatively shallow waters were\nbeing driven back into the deeper part of the sea. Instantly the word\nof command was given. With the women and children first and the flocks\nnext, they picked their way through the mud and sand and rocks on the\nlake bottom, clear across to the other side. The next morning the wind\nchanged, the waters returned, and many of their pursuers were drowned.\n\nThe feelings of the Hebrews are expressed in the words of the triumph\nsong in which through all later centuries they celebrated this\ndeliverance:\n\n =\"I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously:\n The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.=\n * * * * * * * * *\n =Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea;\n And his chosen captains are sunk in the Red Sea.\"=\n\n\nINFLUENCE OF THE EXODUS ON HEBREW RELIGION\n\nIt was indeed a notable deliverance, and the Hebrews never forgot it.\nIt affected their ideals and their religion. Immediately after\nescaping from Egypt they set out across the desert for Mount Sinai,\nwhich was considered the home of their God Jehovah, there to offer up\nsacrifices of gratitude. Moreover, from that time on, every year they\nbrought to mind the story of the great deliverance through a\nsacrificial feast called the Passover. Under Moses' leadership at\nSinai they entered into a covenant with Jehovah. They were to be\nJehovah's people forever, and they probably agreed to worship him\nonly, as their national God.\n\n=Monotheism.=--At this time few had come to perceive the truth of\nmonotheism, namely, that there is but one God in the universe, and\nthat all the so-called gods and goddesses are mere superstitions. The\nHebrews, at this time, did not doubt the real existence of other gods\nthan Jehovah, such as Chemosh, the god of the Moabites, and Marduk and\nShamash, gods of Babylon. But after the deliverance from Egypt they\nfelt themselves bound to Jehovah by special ties of gratitude, and\nmore and more came to consider the worship of any other god, by a\nHebrew as base disloyalty. So the Exodus, and the experiences at\nSinai, pointed the way, at least, toward monotheism.\n\n=Justice.=--Of great importance also was the influence of these\nexperiences on their ideas of right and wrong, and their conception of\nthe character of Jehovah. Because they as a nation had been enslaved\nthey were the better able to sympathize with the oppressed and\ndown-trodden. \"Remember,\" their prophets could always say, \"that _ye_\nwere slaves in the land of Egypt.\" And when, in after years, they were\nunjust in their dealings with foreigners living among them, they were\nreminded that \"Ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.\"\n\nThese ideals were reflected in their conception of their God. Many of\ntheir notions about him were crude and unworthy, even late in their\nhistory. This was natural and inevitable in the light of the times in\nwhich they lived. But in these Egyptian and desert experiences we see\na notable beginning of nobler religious ideals. From this time on they\nwere impelled to think of Jehovah, first of all as the God who had\nbrought them up out of the land of Egypt, and who had taken their\npart, humble shepherds as they were, against the mighty Pharaoh, the\nking of Egypt. To that extent, at least, their God was a God of\njustice and mercy. Other ideas, which were inconsistent with this,\ncontinued for a time, but gradually fell away, until at length great\nseers arose who proclaimed that God is nothing else than justice and\nmercy; righteousness is the essence of his character, and that is all\nhe asks of men.\n\n \"Righteousness and justice are the foundation of thy throne.\"\n\n\nTHE TEN COMMANDMENTS\n\nAccording to all the Hebrew records, the covenant at Sinai was\nembodied in a divinely given Decalogue, or a set of ten short\ncommands, which could be counted off on the ten fingers. Two\nDecalogues are given in Exodus, as coming from Moses at Sinai. One is\nin Exodus 34. 17-28. The other is the well-known Decalogue in Exodus\n20. The former has to do largely with sacrifices and ritual\nobservances. The latter, with its stern demands for right conduct\ntoward one's fellow men, and for the worship of Jehovah rather than\nidols, expresses well the new moral and religious impulses which came\nto the Hebrews under the leadership of their first great deliverer.\n\nIn its original form the Decalogue probably read something as follows:\n\n =Thou shalt have no other gods before me.=\n =Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven (or molten) image.=\n =Thou shalt not take the name of Jehovah thy God in vain.=\n =Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.=\n =Honor thy father and thy mother.=\n =Thou shalt not kill.=\n =Thou shalt not commit adultery.=\n =Thou shalt not steal.=\n =Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.=\n =Thou shalt not covet.=\n\n\nSTUDY TOPICS\n\n1. Read in Hastings or any other modern Bible dictionary, the article\non \"Exodus.\" Note the testimony of modern travelers on the effect of\nhigh winds on the upper part of the Red Sea.\n\n2. Where was Mount Sinai? Look up in Bible dictionary.\n\n3. Draw a map, showing the probable route of the Hebrews after leaving\nEgypt.\n\n4. What part of the Ten Commandments seems most to reflect the\ninfluence of the great deliverance from Egypt? Read Deuteronomy 5.\n12-15.\n\n5. Test your memory for the Ten Commandments in their brief form as\ngiven in this chapter.\n\n6. The records of the events of this chapter are found in Exodus,\nchapters 6-12, 14, and 15. Read as much of this as your time will\npermit.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nFROM THE DESERT INTO CANAAN\n\n\nOnce safely out of Egypt, the next problem for Moses and his people\nwas to find a way into Canaan. Through all the centuries the wandering\nshepherds on the edge of the desert have looked with longing eyes on\nthe fertile valleys and plains of Palestine. To have a settled,\ncomfortable home, with cisterns of water as well as springs and wells;\nto have fields of wheat, vineyards of grapes, and gardens of melons\nand all luscious fruits--this is the picture that haunts the wandering\nArab, amid the hardships and monotony of his desert life.\n\n\nTHE LAND OF CANAAN\n\nDuring the twelfth and eleventh centuries before Christ there was an\nunusually good opportunity for nomads to settle in Palestine. Before\nand after that time there were strong empires in control of the land\nprotecting it from invasion. The Greeks and Romans long afterward\nbuilt a line of fortified towns east of the Jordan on the border of\nthe desert, whose ruins may be seen to-day. In similar ways the\nBabylonians and the Egyptians had occupied and defended the country.\nBut just about the time when the Hebrews escaped from Egypt, and for a\ncentury and more afterward, both the Egyptian and Babylonian\ngovernments were weak. And as the various petty kings of Canaan itself\nwere usually at war with each other, there was no strong government\nanywhere whose soldiers newcomers would have to face.\n\n=The first invasion from the south.=--Very soon after leaving the\nmountain of Sinai the Hebrew tribes found themselves on the southern\nedge of Canaan, in what was afterward known as the South Country,\nsouth of Judah. Scouts were sent up as far as the town of Hebron,\nwhich was afterward for a time the capital of Judah, to investigate\nand report on conditions there. They returned with a glowing account\nof the fertility of the soil. It is even stated in the Hebrew\ntraditions that they brought back as a sample of the crops, one bunch\nof grapes so large that it had to be carried on a pole between two\nmen.\n\nBut with the exception of one of their leaders, a certain Caleb, all\nthe men reported that the cities were strongly fortified and the\ninhabitants so warlike that an invasion was out of the question. The\npeople adopted this \"majority report\" in spite of the protests of\nMoses. It is probable that the life in Egypt, with something of ease\nand luxury for a time, and then so many years of slavery, had sapped\ntheir courage and will power. At any rate, after a brief encounter\nwith some of the tribesmen nearby, they fled in panic into the desert\nagain.\n\n\nTHE WILDERNESS WANDERINGS\n\nThere followed, for a generation and more, a period of training\nsomewhat like that which Boy Scouts receive, or should receive, on\ntheir \"hikes\" and camping trips. They learned to be independent and\nresourceful. It was at times very difficult to find food for\nthemselves, or pasture for their sheep, and there was nothing to eat\nbut the \"manna,\" which they believed their God provided for them, and\nwhich was perhaps in the nature of an edible moss or lichen. At times\nthere was a terrible scarcity of water. Always there was the danger of\nlosing their way on those trackless wastes, and in this matter also\nthey learned to look to their God as their pillar of cloud by day and\ntheir pillar of fire by night, guiding them from oasis to oasis in\ntheir search for food and pasturage. Then there were wild beasts and\npoisonous serpents and, worst of all, hostile tribes with whom more\nthan once they had to fight for their lives.\n\n=Gaining a foothold east of the Jordan.=--All these years of wandering\nwere spent mostly in the desert south of Canaan. Later they worked\ntheir way around the lower end of the Dead Sea to the east toward what\nwas later known as the land of Gilead, on the eastern side of the\nJordan River.\n\nThis region is very fertile and was always noted in Bible times for\nits fat cattle. But its rolling plains lie open and defenseless toward\nthe desert. Here under Moses' leadership the Hebrews were able to\nconquer one or two of the petty local chieftains, and thus gained a\nfoothold from which they might some time make a sally across the River\nJordan into central Canaan itself.\n\n=The death of Moses.=--In this eastern country Moses died. According\nto the Hebrew story, Jehovah gave him a view of the land of Canaan\nfrom one of the high mountains overlooking the Jordan River, after\nwhich death came. And \"no man knoweth of his sepulcher to this day.\"\nHe had been loyal to the divine call which had come to him so long ago\nin a flame which \"burned and did not consume,\" loyal to the mother who\nhad taught him amid the luxuries of an Egyptian palace not to forget\nhis own people and their sorrows. He had led his people out of Egypt\nand its slavery in defiance of the proud and mighty Pharaoh. And he\nhad taught them to turn to Jehovah as God of justice and to worship\nonly him.\n\n\nTHE INVASION OF CANAAN FROM THE EAST\n\nIt was not long after the settlement east of the Jordan that the\nHebrews began to make raids across the river, in part under the\nleadership of one of Moses' lieutenants, Joshua. The first town they\ncaptured was Jericho, down in the hot valley of the Jordan River, a\nfew miles north of the Dead Sea. They had friends within the city, a\nwoman named Rahab and her family. Since this was the first city\ncaptured it was considered to be sacred to Jehovah. The pity of it is\nthat, in accordance with the standards of that day, this meant the\nruthless slaughter of every living thing within its walls, including\nmen, women, and little children.\n\n=New conquests.=--In these early raids some tribes, led by the men of\nJudah, went southwest and captured a few towns in the mountains west\nof the Dead Sea. Others, led by the strong tribe of Ephraim, went\nnorthwest. Throughout their later history, these were always the two\nleading tribes, Judah in the south, and Ephraim in the north. After\nthe victories of the fighting men, the women and children and flocks\nwould follow.\n\nWe can imagine these rough warriors, with their untrained boys and\ngirls, swarming into the houses of these little towns and villages.\nMost of them had never been inside a house before; and they would be\neager to look at the furniture and to know the uses of the many\nstrange things: for example, the jar of lye for cleaning, the perfumes\non the stand, the earthen vessels for water and milk, the lamps, the\nbaskets made of twigs, the pots for boiling broth, the oven for\nbaking, in the door yard, and the wine press on the hillside where the\ngrapes were trodden at the time of grape harvest.\n\n=The right and wrong of conquest.=--One may ask, what right had the\nHebrews to attack and kill these people and seize their homes? Ideal\nChristian standards develop slowly. In these days of which we speak\nsuch standards had hardly been thought of. All weak nations were at\nthe mercy of their stronger neighbors, and no one ever questioned the\nmorality of it. It is good to know, moreover, that conquest, after\nall, was not the chief method by which the Hebrews made themselves\nmasters of Canaan. After they had established themselves, here and\nthere, in certain towns, and certain sections of the country, they\ngradually made friends with their Canaanite neighbors whom they had\nnot been able to conquer at the beginning. In time their children\nintermarried with the children of the Canaanites until at last there\ncame to be one nation, which was known as the Hebrews, or the Children\nof Israel.\n\n\nSTUDY TOPICS\n\n1. Read any one of the following sections: Numbers 11. 13-14, 20, 21;\nDeuteronomy 34; Joshua 1. 6.\n\n2. Draw a map showing in a general way the movements of the Hebrews\ndescribed in this chapter.\n\n3. Look up in the Bible dictionary, \"Manna,\" \"Spies,\" \"Kadesh,\"\n\"Jericho.\"\n\n4. Compare the conquest of Canaan with the treatment of the American\nIndians by white settlers.\n\n5. How should the natives of Africa be treated in the opening up of\nAfrica to civilization?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nLEARNING TO BE FARMERS\n\n\nThe wandering Hebrew shepherds were not savages nor barbarians. In\nmany ways Abraham and his friends were cultured, civilized people; but\ntheir civilization was of a different kind from that of the settled\nfarmers and villagers of Canaan. So when the Hebrews crossed the\nJordan and gradually fought their way to the highland fields and\nvillages where they were able to settle down and live as farmers and\nvineyard keepers instead of shepherds, they soon found that they had\nmuch to learn. The only teachers to whom they could turn were the\nCanaanites. Very soon, therefore, they made friends with their\nCanaanite neighbors.\n\n\"Tell us how to plant wheat,\" the Hebrews said to them, for example;\nor, \"Will you please show us how to prune these grape vines?\" or,\n\"Won't you give us a few lessons in driving oxen? We can't make these\nyoung steers pull.\"\n\n\nLEARNING TO RAISE AND USE CATTLE\n\nThis lesson about the training and care of cattle was one of the first\nand most necessary parts of their new education. As shepherds they\nknew all about sheep and goats; and this knowledge was still valuable,\nfor on many a Canaanite hillside goats could thrive where no other\nanimal could live. But as farmers they must also raise cattle, not\nonly because of the milk, and the beef, but because they needed the\noxen to draw their carts and plows and harrows. Oxen and asses, not\nhorses, were the work animals of the farmers of those days. Oxen\nwere more powerful than asses. Horses were seldom seen at all. They\nwere used chiefly in war by the great military emperors of Egypt and\nAssyria.\n\n +-------------------------------------------------------------------+\n | [Illustration: EGYPTIAN PLOWING |\n | (Similar to Hebrew Method.)] |\n | |\n | [Illustration: EGYPTIANS THRESHING AND WINNOWING |\n | (Hebrews used same methods.)] |\n | |\n | [Illustration: EGYPTIAN OR HEBREW THRESHING FLOOR] |\n | |\n | Cuts on this page used by permission of the Palestine Foundation |\n | Fund. |\n +-------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\n=Driving an ox team.=--So we can imagine the young Canaanites of those\ndays watching a Hebrew farmer taking his first lesson with a team of\noxen. There was a wooden yoke to lay on their necks; there was the\ntwo-wheeled farm cart with its long tongue to be fastened to the yoke.\nThere was the goad, a long pole with a sharp point, to stick into the\nanimals' flanks if they should balk. And probably there were many\nuseful tricks to be learned; for example, words like our \"Gee\" and\n\"Haw\" and \"Whoa,\" to shout at the animals when it was necessary to\nturn to the left or the right or to stop altogether.\n\nPlowing was one of the most difficult of the tasks to be done with\noxen. The furrows had to be run straight and true. And the plows were\nclumsy affairs--not like our shining steel plows to-day--just a long\npole with a short diagonal crosspiece, sharpened at the lower end, or\ntipped with a small bronze share.\n\n\nCROPS OF ANCIENT CANAAN\n\nThe Hebrews raised the same crops as the earlier Canaanites. The\nleading ones were wheat, barley, olives, grapes, and figs. The two\ngrain crops were, of course, the most necessary to life. They were\nplanted in the early spring, and harvested in the summer. The grain\nwas sown broadcast, by hand, just as Jesus describes in his great\nparable of the sower.\n\n=Ancient agriculture.=--Harvesting and threshing were done almost\nentirely by hand. The grain was cut with sickles. Some of the old\nsickles have recently been found by investigators, buried deep in the\nmounds where ruined Canaanite cities lie hidden. Some of these sickles\nare of metal, and others are made of the jawbones of oxen or asses,\nwith sharp flints driven into the tooth sockets. After the grain was\ncut it was tied in bundles and carried to the threshing floor, which\nwas usually a wide, level space of hard ground or rock. Oxen were\ndriven back and forth across the grain on the floor, drawing a heavy\nweight, until all or nearly all the kernels were shaken or crushed out\nof the heads. It usually took several days to thresh all the grain\nfrom an average-sized field. Then the straw was raked away, and the\ngrain was left mixed with chaff and dust. The next windy day the\nwinnowers, with large \"fans,\" or wooden shovels, came and tossed the\nmingled chaff and dust and grain in the wind. The kernels of wheat\nfell back and the chaff and dust were blown away. Last of all, the\ngood clean grain was gathered in baskets and bags, and hauled to the\nfarmer's house, or to the granary, which was a round brick building\nstanding beside or behind his house.\n\n\nVINEYARDS AND OLIVES\n\nAnother new experience of the Hebrews in Canaan was the culture of\ngrapevines. The vineyards were often on hillsides, especially those\nfacing the south, and hence warmed by the early spring sunshine. The\nsoil on these hillsides had to be terraced so that the rain would not\nwash it away. The vines had to be planted, trained on trellises, and\npruned. At the time of the grape harvest many of the grapes,\nespecially of the sweeter varieties, were set aside for raisins. They\nwere spread out on sheets in the hot sunshine until they were dry and\nwrinkled. Then they were packed away in jars, where they settled into\ndelicious cakes. Figs were dried and packed in the same way.\n\n=The manufacture of wine.=--Many of the grapes were used for wine. The\njuice of these was trodden out in wine-presses. These were large\nhollows several feet square, cut in the solid rock on the hillside.\nThere were always two of them, one lower than the other, with\nconnecting passages. The bunches of grapes were piled in great heaps\nin the higher of the two, and then it was great fun for the boys and\ngirls and youths and maidens to jump barefooted and barelegged among\nthe purple clusters, and trample them until the foaming red juice ran\ndown into the lower of the stone chambers, where it was taken up with\ngourd dippers and poured into skins. The youngsters would come home\nwith their legs and shirts all stained and spotted red.\n\n=Olive orchards.=--Almost every Canaanite farm had a few olive trees\nor a small olive orchard. The olives were prized for the oil which was\nsqueezed from them. This oil was used as we use butter, with bread and\nin cooking. It was also burned in lamps. In fact, it was their chief\nfuel for lighting purposes.\n\nThe olive press was a large stone with a hollow in the top. From the\nbottom of the hollow, a hole was drilled through to the outside of the\nstone. Across the hollow swung a wooden beam, one end riveted to a\ntree or another stone, and the other end carrying weights. The ripe\nolives were shaken from the trees, and basket full after basket full\npoured into the hollow stone. Then the weighted beam would be laid\nacross the top, with flat stones under it, fitting down into the\nhollow over the olives. The oil, trickling out below, was strained and\nstored in jars.\n\n\nHARD WORK AND BRIGHT HOPES\n\nMost of these different kinds of crops called for an immense amount of\nhard work and drudgery. Think of the weariness of the reapers,\nswinging their sickles in the wheat or barley all day long under the\nhot Syrian sun. Think of the winnowers, tossing the grain into the\nwind. Think of the aching backs of the plower and the sower. Of course\nthere were happy hours, also. It was great fun to ride home behind the\noxen, on a cart packed full and pressed down with golden sheaves. The\ntime of treading out the grapes was a festival of laughter,\nlove-making, and song. And in the rainy season, after a year of\nplentiful harvests, when the granaries and cellars were well stored,\nthere must have been many happy days of quiet rest and play in Hebrew\nhomes.\n\nBut most of all, what cheered them on was the hope of better days to\ncome, when their children at least, or their children's children,\nwould not have to toil quite so hard or so long each day, and when the\ndanger of famine and starvation would not loom up quite so grimly as\nin the old days in the desert when one summer of drought might mean\ndeath for all. Here in Canaan, they thought, we will surely be happy\nby and by.\n\n\nSTUDY TOPICS\n\n1. Explain the following Scripture passages, in the light of the\ncustoms described in this chapter: Isaiah 63. 2; Deuteronomy 25. 4;\nMatthew 3. 12.\n\n2. Psalm 23. 1 draws a great lesson about God from the experiences of\nshepherd life. What lesson about God is drawn from farm life in Isaiah\n5. 1-7?\n\n +-------------------------------------------------------------------+\n | [Illustration: AN EGYPTIAN REAPING] |\n | |\n | [Illustration: CANAANITE HOES] |\n | |\n | [Illustration: CANAANITE SICKLE] |\n | |\n | [Illustration: CANAANITE OR HEBREW PLOWSHARES] |\n | |\n | Cuts on this page used by permission of the Palestine Exploration |\n | Fund. |\n +-------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nVILLAGE LIFE IN CANAAN\n\n\nThe farmers of ancient Canaan all lived in villages. No farmer would\nhave dreamed of building an isolated house for his family on his own\nfield out of sight of his nearest neighbor as our American farmers do.\nThe danger from robbers would have been too great. Instead of that,\nthe Hebrew farmer lived in the nearest village or town. Early in the\nmorning he went out to his field, and in the evening returned to his\nhome inside the protecting village walls.\n\nThese ancient villages would have seemed to us most unattractive\nplaces. The houses were crowded close together. The streets were only\nnarrow crooked lanes between the houses. In the rear room of each\nhouse were the stalls of the family ox and ass. The brays of the ass\nwere the alarm clock in the early morning. There was no drainage.\nGarbage was thrown into the street. There were smells of all\nvarieties. One is not surprised by the frequent stories of pestilences\nin the Old-Testament history.\n\n=Compensations of village life.=--It seems strange that people who\nwere accustomed to life in the open desert should have ever brought\nthemselves to settle down in these dirty, ill-smelling places. Surely,\nat first they must often have been homesick for the clean, pure air of\nthe plains. On the other hand, probably most of them were willing to\nput up with the disagreeable odors and the dirty streets for the sake\nof being near other people. The desert was lonesome. In the village\nthere was always something going on, something to hear and see, gossip\nof weddings and courtships and quarrels. Even to-day we find it hard\nto persuade those who are accustomed to the city to live in the\ncountry. Even though their city home may be a dark tenement in the\nslums, yet they enjoy being in a crowd of their fellow men. The\ncountry seems lonesome.\n\n\nLESSONS IN HOUSE BUILDING\n\nThis village and town life, like the work on the farm, was a new\nschool for the Hebrew shepherds, and set many an interesting problem\nfor them to solve. They had to learn to build and repair houses. They\nwere most often built of rough stones set in mud. The mud, when dry,\nbecame fairly hard, but not like mortar or cement. It was always easy\nfor a thief \"to dig through and steal,\" as Jesus so graphically\ndescribed. Even though no thief came the dried mud was always\ncrumbling, leaving holes between the stones through which snakes or\nlizards could crawl. In such a house, if a man should lean against the\nwall, it might easily happen that a serpent would bite him, as the\nprophet Amos suggests.[3]\n\n=Primitive Homes.=--The floor of the average poor man's house was\nsimply the hard ground. The flat roof was made of poles thatched with\nstraw or brushwood and covered over with mud or clay. There was seldom\nmore than one room. Often there were no windows; even in the palaces\nof kings there were in those days no windows of glass. In one corner\nof the room there was a fireplace where the family cooking was done.\nThere was no chimney, however, and the smoke had to go out through the\nopen door. The door itself was generally fastened to a post, the\nlower end of which turned in a hollow socket in a heavy stone. When\nthe family went away from home the door was locked with a huge wooden\nkey, which was carried, not in the pocket, like our keys, but over the\nshoulder. Such keys had this advantage, at any rate, over ours. You\ncould not very well lose them and you did not need a key ring.\n\n=Houses of the well-to-do.=--Rich men's houses were, of course, more\nsubstantially and comfortably built. Real mortar made of lime was used\nin the walls. There were several rooms, including perhaps a cool\n\"summer house\" on the roof, making a kind of second story. One climbed\nup to these upper rooms by a ladder on the outside. The roof was\nsolidly built and surrounded by a railing, so that on a hot summer\nevening the family could sit there and enjoy the cool evening breeze.\nThere were windows also, covered with wooden lattice work, which let\nin light and air.\n\nNo doubt every Hebrew father hoped that some day he or his children\nmight live in such a house. Some of them learned the builder's trade\nand were able to lay stones in mortar and to use saws and axes and\nnails and other tools for woodwork. Yet when David built his palace,\nhe had to send to Tyre for skilled masons. Evidently in his day the\nHebrews had not progressed very far in the manual training department\nof their new school.\n\n\nOTHER VILLAGE ARTS AND CRAFTS\n\nMany trades, which with us are carried on in separate shops, were a\npart of the household work among the ancient Hebrews: for example,\nspinning and weaving and the making of baskets, of shoes, girdles,\nand other articles of skin or leather. We will study some of these\nhousehold activities in another chapter. Other trades, however, even\nin the early days, were carried on by special artisans who worked at\nnothing else.\n\n=Trained artisans.=--Metal workers, for example, formed a special\ntrade. Among the excavations of ancient Canaanite cities have been\nfound the ruins of a blacksmith shop. When the Hebrews entered Canaan\nno one had as yet learned the art of working in iron and steel by\nmeans of a forge with a forced draft. All tools and metal implements,\nsuch as plowshares, knives, axes, saws, and so on, were made of\nbronze, which consists of copper mixed and hardened with tin. The\nblacksmith melted the metals in a very simple and rough furnace of\nclay heated by charcoal. The bronze itself, although harder than\ncopper, could be worked into the desired shape by hammering and\nfiling, without the use of heat. We who are used to our sharp, finely\ntempered tools of steel would certainly have found these clumsy bronze\naffairs most unsatisfactory.\n\n=The pottery shop.=--Another very ancient trade is that of the potter.\nThis worker did not need much of a shop; only an oven in which to fire\nhis products, a pile of clay, and a wheel. This consisted of a frame,\nin which turned an upright rod on which were two flat wooden wheels,\none small at about the height of the worker's hands as he sat in front\nof it, and the other larger, to be turned by the feet. A heap of clay\nwas placed on the upper wheel, which was then turned by the revolving\nrod, the potter's feet all the time kicking on the larger wheel below.\nThe whirling mass was shaped by the fingers, according to the plan in\nthe worker's mind.\n\n +-------------------------------------------------------------------+\n | [Illustration: MODERN ARAB WOMAN SPINNING] |\n | |\n | [Illustration: ANCIENT HEBREW DOOR KEY] |\n | |\n | [Illustration: HEBREW NEEDLES OF BONE] |\n | |\n | [Illustration: SMALLER KEY] |\n | |\n | Cuts on this page used by permission of the Palestine Exploration |\n | Fund. |\n +-------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nHow quickly a modern boy would have contrived a different arrangement,\nwith a belt and foot-tread like the one on our mother's sewing\nmachine! But for those days the ancient wheel was ingenious. Many\ndifferent kinds of Hebrew pottery are found in the excavations: large\njars, small cups, lamps of all sizes and shapes and even babies'\nrattles.\n\n=How Hebrew boys learned a trade.=--The youngsters from the desert had\nnever seen any of these interesting crafts, except perhaps now and\nthen when their fathers had brought them with the wool to market. But\nnow, on a rainy day when there was no work to be done in the field or\nat home, the boys would go down the street to the blacksmith shop, or\nto the shed where the old Canaanite potter worked his clay. One of the\nolder boys would say, \"Let me see if I can make something,\" and if the\nold man was good-natured he would let him try and perhaps would teach\nhim some of the tricks of the trade. By and by the boy would hire out\nas a potter's helper and in a year or two would set up a little\npottery of his own.\n\nSo there came to be Hebrew as well as Canaanite potters and\nblacksmiths. They were proud of their skill in these arts, and as a\nnation they never were foolish enough to look down on them or to\ndespise those who practiced them. All work was looked on as honorable.\nThe apostle Paul was a tent-maker. Jesus was a carpenter. And in this\nrespect for honest and useful work we may see another reason why the\npeople of Israel have played so remarkable a part in the life of\nhumanity.\n\n\nSTUDY TOPICS\n\n1. Explain the following Scripture passage in the light of the\ncustoms described in this chapter. Isaiah 22. 22; Deuteronomy 22. 8.\n\n2. In earlier chapters we have seen how the Hebrew leaders drew\nlessons about God from shepherd life (Psalm 23), and from farm life\n(Isaiah 5. 1-7). What lesson did a great prophet learn in regard to\nGod from the experiences of an artisan? (Jeremiah 18. 1-6.)\n\n3. Why was it necessary to build a tower in a Canaanite vineyard, as\nsuggested in Isaiah 5. 2 and Mark 12. 1?\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[3] Amos 5. 19.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nKEEPING HOUSE INSTEAD OF CAMPING OUT\n\n\nLet us suppose that we have been invited to spend a day or two as\nguests in the home of one of these Hebrew families who have just\nsettled in Canaan and begun to learn the new arts and customs of the\nland. It is one of the poorer homes. We have slept through the night\non our mat spread on the dirt floor of the house, with our cloak over\nus to keep us warm. Before daylight we are awakened by the older\npeople moving about in the dim light of the burning wick in the saucer\nof oil. Soon everyone is awake. The mats are rolled up and piled in a\ncorner. In the early dawn one of the older girls takes a jar on her\nshoulder and goes for water to the spring, which is outside the\nvillage half way up the hill.\n\nIf we are expecting to be called to breakfast, we shall be\ndisappointed. There is no regular morning meal, although everyone\nhelps himself to a bite or two of bread from the bread basket in the\ncorner of the room. By and by father and the older boys take the ox\nand the ass from the shed just back of the one-roomed house (we are\nlucky if the animals were not kept all night in the house itself) and\nstart for the field. And the women also have their day's work before\nthem in the house. First of all, there is a bag of wheat to be ground\ninto flour.\n\n\nHOME TASKS\n\nIn the desert the wheat or barley, when they had it, was merely\npounded between two rough stones such as could be picked up anywhere.\nThe flour, or meal, which was made in this way was not very good.\nHere in Canaan, each house had a rude stone hand-mill for grinding\ngrain. It consists of a large lower stone with a saddle-shaped hollow\non the upper side. The upper stone is somewhat like a large, very\nheavy rolling pin. The grain is poured into the hollow and the upper\nstone is rolled back and forth over it while the flour gradually sifts\nout over the sides on to the cloth which is spread on the ground\nunderneath the mill. It is a monotonous task, and very often two\npeople work it together, one feeding in the grain and the other\nturning the millstone. This is pleasanter, as each worker is \"company\"\nfor the other. Perhaps our hostess will let us roll the millstone for\nher while she feeds in the grain and sweeps up the flour from the\ncloth on the ground.\n\n=Baking bread.=--After the wheat is ground into flour there is bread\nto be baked. On the plains they do not use much yeast-bread, for this\nrequires an oven for baking and one cannot carry heavy ovens from camp\nto camp. But in Canaan each family has its oven. It is made of baked\nclay and looks like a section of tiling standing on end, about two\nfeet high, the clay being about an inch and a half thick. There is a\ncover of the same material. Sometimes the fire is made on the inside\nand the loaves of dough plastered on the outside. More often the\nloaves are placed on a baking tray, let down on the inside of the\noven, and the fire built all around and over it outside.\n\nAll sorts of fuel are used. Wood is the best, of course, but in that\nland wood has always been scarce. In the times of the Hebrews, as\nto-day, dried manure, straw, and all sorts of refuse were used. Jesus\nspeaks of the grass of the field, \"which to-day is, and to-morrow is\ncast into the oven.\"\n\n=Baking day.=--To-day, while we are visiting, our Hebrew hostess is\nkneading some dough. She \"set it\" last night, pouring in some liquid\nyeast. By and by it is ready for baking. A tray of small loaves about\nthe size of biscuits is placed in the oven, and a great pile of dried\ngrass placed around the sides and over the cover. By and by the fire\nis lighted from some coals on the hearth; and in a few moments the\nhouse is filled with smoke. We all go out on the street until the oven\nis heated and the smoke has escaped.\n\n\nWEAVING WOOL AND FLAX\n\nAnother household utensil which Hebrew women learned to use in Canaan\nwas the heavy loom. This consisted of a low horizontal frame, with a\ndevice for separating the odd and even threads of the \"warp\" while a\nshuttle was drawn through them, carrying the yarn for the \"web,\" or\nthe cross threads. With this kind of a loom it was possible to weave\nmuch more rapidly than when one had to insert each thread, plaiting it\nover and under, by hand. There is, no doubt, one of these looms in the\nhouse where we are visiting.\n\n=Making linen out of flax.=--In the desert almost all garments were\nmade of wool, especially in the case of the poorer tribes, who could\nnot afford to buy linen. In those days the use of cotton was probably\nunknown. Now everyone knows how it feels to wear a flannel shirt on a\nhot summer day. And one of the things which drew the Hebrew shepherds\nto Canaan was the hope of raising a little flax on each farm, and\nspinning it into cool, soft linen garments for the hot summers. So it\nmay be that a part of the work in the house we are visiting to-day is\nto soak some of the stalks of flax in water, or to beat out from them\nthe long fibers, or to spin and weave some of these fibers into\ncloth.\n\n\nPREPARING DINNER\n\nOf course the main business of each day in the household then, as now,\nis to get dinner ready. There is a light lunch about noon for the\nwomen and children. To-day perhaps we have some bread and milk. But as\nthe sun begins to sink in the west we know that before long the men\nfolks will come home hungry. We must have dinner ready for them when\nthey come. If it has been a good year, even poor families in Canaan\ncan have a fairly good meal. There is no meat, unless perhaps a lamb\nor a kid has been killed, especially for us as guests. But there is\nthe curdled milk, and bread with olive oil and other things which\nshepherd folk never have. Here's a steaming kettle of beans or\nlentils. How good they smell! And here are some bunches of raisins and\nfigs, just as sweet and luscious as those which we buy in the fruit\nstores in America. The figs in our stores may have come from that very\ncountry of which we are studying.\n\n=Serving the meal.=--Soon the father and the boys come home. The ox\nand the ass are fed in the stall behind the house. The mother spreads\na cloth on the ground and on it places a small stand about eight\ninches high, which is their only dining-room table. The pot of beans\nis placed on this stand, and the bread and other good things on the\ncloth around it. We all sit down on the ground and begin to eat.\n\nFingers were made before forks. For the beans, however, we need a\nspoon, and here are some shells from the beach that serve admirably\nfor that purpose; and we all dip into the same dish on the little\nstand. By and by, when all is gone but the liquid, we sop that up\nwith pieces of bread. When every crumb is picked up and eaten, we all\nlift our eyes to heaven, and the father repeats a prayer of\nthanksgiving to God. Dinner is over. The sun has set. It is growing\ndark, and soon it will be time to go to bed.\n\n\nSTUDY TOPICS\n\n1. Explain the following Scripture passages in the light of this\nchapter:\n\nJudges 16. 13; Deuteronomy 24. 6; Matthew 24. 41.\n\n2. Read Proverbs 31. 10-31 for another picture of daily life in an\nancient Hebrew home. What is said in this chapter about the making of\nbeautiful as well as necessary things, and about the doing of kindly\ndeeds?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nMORAL VICTORIES IN CANAAN\n\n\nOn the whole, Canaan was a good school for the Hebrew shepherds. New\narts to learn, new crops to raise, new kinds of cloth to spin and\nweave, new kinds of food to cook--all this helped to make life more\ninteresting and worth while. But there were other lessons which\nnewcomers might learn which were not so wholesome.\n\nWine drinking, for example, was a habit which the wisest of the\nHebrews always feared. The wine which they made in those foaming\nwine-presses was, of course, mild and harmless as compared with the\ndistilled liquors of modern times. But even Canaanitish wine could\ndeaden men's consciences and make them more like beasts than men.\n\"Wine is a mocker,\" said one of the sages who wrote the book of\nProverbs, \"strong drink is raging, and he that is deceived thereby is\nnot wise.\"\n\n\nIDOLATRY IN CANAAN\n\nCanaanite religion was to a large extent an unwholesome influence. The\nCanaanites worshiped many gods. Each village had its Baal, or lord,\nwho had to be bribed with burnt offerings of fat beasts, or (as they\nthought) the soil would lose its fertility and the crops would fail.\n\n=Dangerous examples.=--These sacrificial rites were carried on in the\nshrines or \"high places,\" one of which stood outside almost every\nvillage and town. They often were accompanied by dances and other\nperformances which were licentious and degrading. The Hebrews, of\ncourse, were pledged to worship only Jehovah. Moreover, during these\nfirst centuries in Canaan they were very poor, and had little time for\nthe carousals which went on at the \"high places\" in the name of\nreligion. Corruption usually comes with wealth and luxury. Poverty and\nhardship are often useful safeguards. But from the beginning these\nheathen rites were a temptation and a snare in the lives of the\nHebrews.\n\n\nCANAANITE BELIEFS ABOUT THE WORLD\n\nThere are certain questions which awaken the curiosity of everyone.\nHow did this wonderful world come into existence? How is it that you\nand I happen to be here? How did things in general come to be as they\nare? Some of these difficult questions are to-day being partly\nanswered by careful students of science. In ancient times there was\nlittle or no science, yet in every country there were certain answers\nto these questions handed down from generation to generation and\ngenerally accepted as true.\n\n=Idolatrous stories of creation.=--When the Hebrews entered Canaan\nthey naturally were inclined to accept the ideas of the earlier\ninhabitants of that country, whose knowledge in regard to many matters\nwas far beyond theirs. The Canaanites in turn had got most of their\nideas from the leading civilized nations of that day, the Egyptians,\nand especially the Babylonians. From these sources had come certain\nstories about the beginning of things.\n\nBabylonian traders in the inns of Canaan used to tell a story of the\ncreation of the world, and also about a great flood which the gods\nonce sent upon the earth.\n\n=How the Hebrews retold these stories.=--The best men among the\nHebrews knew that these stories were imperfect. Their forty years\ntraining in the wilderness had made them wise in the ways of God. This\nwisdom enabled them to sift the wheat from the chaff. They retold\nthese stories, omitting the error, and retaining the truth. Thus we\ncome to have the wonderful stories of the creation and the flood as we\nfind them in the Bible.\n\n=How these stories were handed down.=--In the earliest days of the\nsettlement in Canaan very few Hebrews, if any, could read or write.\nPossibly Moses understood the Egyptian picture-writing, or the\nwedge-shaped letters of the Babylonian clay tablets. The Hebrew\nletters, however, in which the books of the Old Testament afterward\nwere written, were invented by the Phoenicians, and the Phoenicians\npassed on their invention to the old Canaanites.\n\nAfter the Hebrews came it was not long before ambitious Hebrew boys\nand girls were staring at the queer marks in the inscriptions which\nthey found here and there, over the gates of Canaanite cities or on\nthe tombs of Canaanite kings. Gradually they learned to spell out\nsyllables, words, and sentences, and then they learned to copy these\nsame letters, so that in time the Hebrews were making inscriptions and\nbooks of their own. Among the earliest of these books was one\ncontaining the stories of the creation and the flood. They had been\nhanded down by word of mouth from one generation to another, until\nfinally they were gathered into a book. This became a part of the book\nof Genesis in our Bible.\n\n\nNEW TENDENCIES TO SELFISHNESS IN CANAAN\n\nAnother and different kind of temptation which the Hebrews met in\nCanaan was the tendency to forget their own tribal brothers as they\nscattered here and there and settled down, each family with its own\nlittle farm. There were some, naturally, who were more successful as\nfarmers than others. And those who were unfortunate were not always\nthe lazy or thriftless. Sickness or accident or some pest which\nattacked the grain or the cattle would sometimes wipe out the entire\nproperty of one of those little peasant farmers and leave him and his\nchildren face to face with starvation and death. Now, in the old days\nin the desert, as long as the tribe had a crust of bread or a drop of\nwater, the weakest and poorest could count on a share. But here in\nCanaan the poor, the widow, the orphan, did not always feel so surely\nthe sheltering arms of kindness and brotherhood.\n\n=Humane laws enacted.=--Yet the spirit of Moses still lived and made\nits power felt. Certain laws gradually came to be accepted during this\nperiod when the Hebrews were learning to be farmers which were a\nspecial protection to the poor and helpless, just as the great leader\nwould have chosen. We can imagine how these laws were first proclaimed\nby the chiefs of the clans and the elders of the villages wherever\nthere were men who remembered how, years before, the whole nation had\nbeen poor and oppressed and enslaved. Here are some examples:\n\n =\"Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child. If\n thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I\n will surely hear their cry.\"=\n\n =\"If thou lend money to any of my people with thee that is\n poor, thou shalt not be to him as a creditor; neither shall\n ye lay upon him usury. If thou at all take thy neighbor's\n garment to pledge, thou shalt restore it unto him before the\n sun goeth down; for that is his only covering, it is his\n garment for his skin: wherein shall he sleep? And it shall\n come to pass when he crieth unto me, that I will hear; for I\n am gracious.\"=\n\n =\"Thou shalt not oppress thy neighbor, nor rob him; the wages\n of a hired servant shall not abide with thee all night until\n the morning.\"=\n\nThere is one law which illustrates especially well how the best men\namong the Hebrews tried to meet the new temptations of Canaan in the\nspirit of kindness and justice which they had learned from Moses.\n\n =\"When ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not\n wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou\n gather the gleaning of the harvest. And thou shalt not glean\n thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather the fallen fruit of\n thy vineyard. Thou shalt leave them for the poor and the\n stranger.\"=\n\nIt was already the custom among the Canaanites to leave the grain in\nthe corners of the fields uncut, and not to pick up the scattered\ngleanings, which fell from the arms of the harvesters, and to leave on\nthe ground the fruit that fell of itself from the vines and fruit\ntrees. With the Canaanites this was on account of a superstition; the\ngleanings and the grain in the corners of the fields were for the\nBaal, or god of the field. If they were taken he would be angry. The\nHebrews kept the old custom, but with a different aim--not to keep the\nBaal in good humor, but to make life a bit easier for the poor and\nunfortunate among their own neighbors. It was in accordance with this\nlaw that Ruth, although a foreigner, was allowed to glean after the\nreapers in the barley field of Boaz of Bethlehem, and thus obtained\nfood to keep herself and her mother alive. So among these lowly people\nwere being laid the foundations of that greater and better\ncivilization for which Moses had prepared the way, and of which\nAbraham had dimly dreamed.\n\n\nSTUDY TOPICS\n\n1. What parts of this chapter illustrate the special talent of the\nHebrews for discovering good in things partly evil?\n\n2. How could this talent be used in our American life? For example, in\nthe matter of moving picture shows?\n\n3. Read Leviticus 19. This chapter contains laws which were made\nduring the period of the settlement in Canaan. Which of them seem to\nyou to be in the spirit of Moses?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nLESSONS IN COOPERATION\n\n\nAfter the Hebrews began to be settled in Canaan, not only were they\ntempted to neglect the poor and unfortunate; they also failed to stand\ntogether against their enemies. Each tribe and clan seemed to care\nonly for its own safety.\n\nThe men of Judah in the south, the Ephraimites in central Canaan, and\nthe Naphtalites in the northern hills, and Gilead and Reuben across\nthe Jordan--each group tried to fight its own battles. Often they\nfought with each other. There was a bloody war between the men of\nGilead, and their cousins, the Ephraimites on the opposite side of the\nJordan. The Ephraimites crossed the river and attacked the Gileadites,\nand were badly beaten; when they tried to get back home again, they\nfound the Gileadites holding the fords of the river. Each fugitive was\nasked, \"Are you an Ephraimite?\" If he said \"No,\" they would order him\nto say \"Shibboleth\" (a Hebrew word). And if he said \"Sibboleth\" (the\nGileadite dialect), and did not pronounce it exactly right, then they\nwould kill him.\n\nThis was only one example of the many wars between the tribes. There\nwas no central government to keep the peace. This age in their history\nis sometimes called the period of the Judges. But these judges did not\nrule over the whole land. Most of them were only petty champions, each\nof whom helped his own tribe to defend itself against its enemies.\n\n\nSISERA AND DEBORAH\n\nIn this disorganized state they would have been an easy prey to any\nstrong enemy; and before long, an enemy came. In the fertile plain of\nEsdraelon, which cuts across Palestine just north of the central\nhighland, there was a group of Canaanite towns which the Hebrews had\nnot as yet conquered. These were organized into a kingdom by a warrior\nnamed Sisera, who at once began to reconquer those parts of the\ncountry which now belonged to the Hebrews. It was a bitter time for\nthe tribes that were settled around the Plain of Esdraelon. Those\nvillages which were perched on the mountain sides held out for a time,\nbut the inhabitants dared not go down into the valleys. They could not\ntake their grain to the market. The valley roads were all deserted\nexcept for bands of Sisera's troopers. Each year Sisera grew stronger,\nand more of the Hebrews submitted to him. In a little while there\nwould have been none left to call themselves Hebrews and to keep up\nthe noble traditions and hopes of Moses and Abraham.\n\n=A wise and patriotic woman.=--If only the more distant tribes had\ncome to the help of those that bordered on Sisera's kingdom, if only\nall the Hebrews had stood together, they could easily have defended\nthemselves. But no one seemed to see this, or had faith enough to try\nto accomplish anything in this way \"until Deborah arose.\" One day\nthere came up through the sheepfolds of the Reubenites this remarkable\nwoman whose name was Deborah. \"Come to the help of your brethren\nacross the river,\" she said, as she told her story. \"Come to the help\nof Jehovah, by helping his people.\"\n\nAt first the Reubenites seemed greatly moved by Deborah's words.\nCertainly, they would come, whenever Deborah and her friends were\nready. So the brave woman was encouraged and went to other tribes, to\nall of them one after another. But not everywhere was she successful.\nMany said: \"Why should we go up and help your people? Suppose Sisera\nwins, he will come and punish us. We will stay here where we are\nsafe.\" Even the Reubenites, whose first resolves had been so brave,\nchanged their minds, and \"stayed in their sheepfolds, listening to the\npipings of the flocks.\"\n\n=The battle by the Kishon River.=--After many weeks of tramping,\nhowever, Deborah was able to get a few of the tribes really organized.\nEphraim, Benjamin, Naphtali, Zebulun, Issachar, and some smaller clans\nall promised to send troops and did send them. An army was gathered\nunder a captain named Barak. The Canaanites under Sisera came out to\nfight them, and the battle took place on the flat fields of the Plain\nof Esdraelon. It looked like a victory for Sisera. He had charioteers\nas well as foot soldiers--troops of men in heavy war carts, from the\naxles of which extended sharp blades like scythes.\n\nBut Deborah had called to her people in the name of Jehovah. And\nJehovah seemed, indeed, to be on their side. We may well believe that\nit was the spirit of God that put it into the hearts of Deborah and\nBarak to delay the battle until there should be a rainy day. When the\nclash finally came there was a heavy downpour. The flat plain became a\nswamp. The war chariots sank into the mud and were helpless. The\nCanaanites became panic-stricken and fled in terror. Many of them were\ndrowned in the attempt to cross the Kishon, which is usually a shallow\ncreek, but on that day was a deep and swiftly flowing torrent.\nSisera, himself in flight, was killed by a woman in whose tent he\ntried to take refuge. The battle was won for Jehovah's people. The\nHebrews could still be free and independent, and they had learned a\nvaluable lesson--the necessity for cooperation.\n\n\nSTUDY TOPICS\n\n1. Read chapters 4 and 5 of the book of Judges.\n\n2. With the help of a map showing the location of the various tribes\nin Canaan, find the ones which were most in danger from Sisera, whose\nkingdom was in the Plain of Esdraelon.\n\n3. With the help of the map, explain why it was not easy for Deborah\nto persuade the Reubenites and the Gileadites to enter this war.\n\n4. What arguments would you have used to persuade them?\n\n5. Could you use the same arguments in favor of the League of Nations\nand our membership in it, as a nation?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nEXPERIMENTS IN GOVERNMENT\n\n\nAfter Sisera was conquered, the Hebrew tribes which had combined\nagainst him immediately fell apart, relapsing into the same state of\ndisunion and disorganization as before. And very soon other enemies\ntook advantage of it to plunder and kill.\n\n=The Midianites.=--Among the most harassing of these enemies for a\ntime were the Midianites, who lived as nomads, roaming over the\ndeserts just as the Hebrews themselves had done except that they made\ntheir living chiefly by robbery. Every spring just after the wheat and\nbarley had begun to sprout, covering all the fields with a carpet of\nthe brightest green, bands of these nomads would drive their flocks\nacross the Jordan and turn them loose on the young grain while the men\nstood guard in armed bands. In the summer and fall after what was left\nof the grain had been harvested and beaten out on the threshing floors\nthey would come again and steal the threshed grain, taking it away in\nbags on the backs of camels.\n\nSometimes the Hebrews would keep the wheat and barley unthreshed with\nthe sheaves piled up in grain ricks and would thresh it out, a little\nat a time, in the low, half-concealed wine presses, which were dug in\nthe rock. No one's life was safe where these marauders were in the\nhabit of coming, and no family could be sure of food to carry them\nover the winter months.\n\n\nGIDEON, THE ABIEZRITE\n\nIn the tribe of Manasseh there was a little clan called Abiezer. One\nnight a band of Midianites came on camels and raided the villages of\nthis clan, killing some of the people, and carrying away whatever they\nfound of value. They then fled back across the Jordan River to the\ndesert before enough Hebrew men could get together to resist them.\n\n=The counter-raid.=--In the heart of one young man, the brother of\nsome who were killed, God planted a sudden determination to put a stop\nto these murders and robberies. He called for volunteers to pursue\nthis band across the river, and when some three hundred had responded\nthey set out in hot haste, down the hillsides into the plain of the\nJordan, up the slopes on the eastern side, and out onto the plains\nwhere the Midianites supposed they were safe. It was hard to track\nthem over these solitary wastes; and they had their swift camels. But\nGideon trailed them; stealing up at night, he surprised them. They\nfled in terror leaving much spoil, and for many years the Hebrews were\nnot molested by this particular tribe of desert wanderers.\n\n=The kingdom of Gideon.=--Out of this experience the Hebrews in\ncentral Canaan gained another lesson in cooperation; and they made up\ntheir minds to profit by it. Here is a man, they said to themselves,\nwho can lead us to victory against our foes. If we all agree to do as\nhe says we can all stand together, each for all and all for each. So\nthey came to Gideon, and asked him to be their ruler. He refused at\nfirst, but it is clear that he finally accepted and really became king\nover some of the tribes and clans of central Canaan. One of his sons,\na certain Abimelech, seized the kingdom after Gideon's death and\nproved to be a selfish tyrant. He was killed by his enemies, and that\nwas the end of the dynasty of Gideon. \"How can we have unity and\ncooperation under a strong leader,\" the Hebrews asked themselves, \"and\nnot at the same time be in danger of slavery under a ruthless tyrant?\"\nThat was a difficult question.\n\n\nTHE PHILISTINES\n\nMeanwhile a national enemy far more dangerous than any previously\nmentioned had begun to threaten their existence as a people. About the\nsame time that the Hebrews settled in Canaan there had landed from\nships on the southwestern coast some newcomers of another race,\nperhaps akin to the Greeks; they were called Philistines. They quickly\nbecame a rich and powerful nation, holding the coast towns of Gath,\nAskelon, Gaza, Ashdod, and Ekron. They were ambitious to become\nmasters of the whole land of Canaan. Their soldiers, in well-trained\nbands, built forts and established garrisons here and there, in the\nleading towns, and compelled the Hebrews to pay tribute.\n\nAt the same time they did not protect the country from other enemies.\nFor example, there were the Amalekites on the southern border, who\nwere robber-nomads, just like the Midianites on the east. There were\nthe people of Ammon, a town east of the Jordan. From these and other\npetty enemies the Hebrews suffered much, and the Philistines did\nnothing to help them. All they cared about was the tribute. \"O for a\nleader like Deborah and Gideon!\" the Hebrews once again began to cry.\n\n=The messengers with the raw meat.=--One day messengers came hurrying\nthrough the towns and villages of central Canaan bearing sacks or\nbaskets of raw beef chopped into small squares. To the leading men of\neach village, they handed a piece of the bloody flesh with this\nmessage: \"This piece of ox flesh is from Saul, the son of Kish, of\nGibeah in Benjamin. As this flesh is cut into small pieces so will the\nflesh of the men of your village be chopped up if you do not come at\nonce, armed for battle, to help our brothers in Jabesh in Gilead east\nof the Jordan, which is besieged by the Ammonites.\" \"Who is Saul?\"\nmany asked, and few could answer. Some perhaps were able to explain\nthat he was a brave and able young farmer, a friend of a prophet named\nSamuel, in the tribe of Benjamin. But it was the raw meat that\npersuaded them to obey the summons. Here is a real leader, they said,\na man who means what he says. And two or three nights later an army of\nHebrews, with Saul in the lead, came dashing in among the tents of the\nAmmonites who were besieging Jabesh and put them to flight. The\nGileadites were saved; and for years to come they remembered Saul with\ngratitude.\n\n\nTHE KINGDOM OF SAUL\n\nShortly after this victory there was a great gathering of the Hebrews\nof Benjamin and some of the neighboring tribes and Saul was elected as\nking. Would he also become a tyrant? Would he make their children\nslaves and take the best of their flocks and herds and wheat and oil,\nleaving them in poverty while he lived in luxury? There were many who\nthought so. The prophet Samuel, himself Saul's friend, warned them of\nthe danger although he helped to make Saul king. But the danger from\nthe Philistines was so great and they had suffered so much from their\nenemies on account of their lack of unity that they were willing to\ntake the risk of organizing themselves as a kingdom under Saul.\n\n=The first victories over the Philistines.=--Soon there came a summons\nto battle. The first encounter turned out well for the Hebrews. One of\nSaul's sons named Jonathan was especially brave and skillful as a\nleader, and was much loved by the people. Other victories followed.\nMore and more clans and tribes flocked to Saul's standard. A young man\nfrom Judah, named David, became famous as a captain and was made the\nchief commander of Saul's armies. The Philistines were not driven out\nfrom their forts, but they were held in check and the sky seemed\nbrighter. There was a chance now for victory and peace. Everyone was\nhopeful for better things. When the soldiers came back from fighting\nthe Philistines, the women would go to meet them with songs and\ndances. One of their songs ran like this:\n\n =\"Saul has slain his thousands\n And David his ten thousands.\"=\n\n=Saul's jealousy.=--When Saul heard of this couplet he was jealous.\n\"They gave more glory to David than to me,\" he thought. \"One of these\ndays, they will make him king in my place.\" His son Jonathan did not\nshare his fears. He loved and trusted David. But from that time\nforward Saul hated David, and finally drove him out as a fugitive.\nInstead of fighting the Philistines he spent all his strength chasing\nDavid from town to town and from cave to cave. Of course the\nPhilistines took advantage of this quarrel between the two ablest men\namong their foes and came back with a strong counter attack. Saul's\nown life was forfeited and that of Jonathan also in a disastrous\ndefeat. The Philistines were masters once more. Saul's kingdom also\nhad proved for the most part a failure.\n\n\nSTUDY TOPICS\n\n1. Locate on the map the Midianites and the Philistines.\n\n2. Why would it have been a calamity for the world if the Philistines\nhad conquered the Hebrews?\n\n3. Study carefully the parable of Jotham (Judges 9. 8-15). In the\nlight of this shrewd illustration, why is it hard to get _good_ men to\nrun for political office, even to-day?\n\n4. If we should undertake to have an _entirely different kind_ of\nmayors, aldermen, governors, Presidents and so on, perhaps really good\nmen would accept these offices. What kind?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nTHE NATION UNDER DAVID AND SOLOMON\n\n\nAfter Saul's death his son Ishbaal fled across the Jordan where the\nPhilistines were not yet in control, and was accepted as king by the\nEast Jordan tribes. More and more, however, the hearts of all the\nHebrews turned toward the young David, who, under the Philistines, to\nwhom he paid tribute, now became king over the tribe of Judah in the\nsouth.\n\n\nDAVID AS A LEADER\n\nDavid was a born leader. Physically he was an athlete. With his sling\nhe could throw stones straight, as Goliath, the Philistine giant,\ndiscovered to his sorrow. He had the gift of winning friends, even\namong those who might naturally have been his enemies, for example\nJonathan and Michal, son and daughter of Saul, and Achish, the\nPhilistine king. His followers with few exceptions were deeply devoted\nto him, risking their lives, sometimes, to gratify his slightest wish.\nHe was wise in his dealings with men, knowing when to be stern and\nwhen to be lenient.\n\n=The nation united under David.=--For a few years there was more or\nless of war between the followers of David and the followers of\nIshbaal. David did not like this war. He had no heart for fighting his\nown kinsmen, the people of the north. His method was to win them over\nwithout conquest. His chief difficulty in this was to restrain his own\nfollowers. Fighting always leads to more fighting. A bitter personal\nfeud flamed up between Joab, David's chief general, and Abner, who\nwas the real power in the other kingdom. David did not dare to punish\nJoab, yet he plainly showed his displeasure. When finally Ishbaal\nhimself was murdered in his sleep, David put the assassins to death.\n\n +-------------------------------------------------------------------+\n | [Illustration: CANAANITE CHISEL (BRONZE)] |\n | |\n | [Illustration: CANAANITE FILE] |\n | |\n | [Illustration: BRONZE HAMMERHEAD] |\n | |\n | [Illustration: VERY ANCIENT CANAANITE FLINT, FOR MAKING STONE |\n | KNIVES] |\n | |\n | [Illustration: BONE AWL HANDLE] |\n | |\n | [Illustration: A FISH-HOOK] |\n | |\n | [Illustration: CANAANITE WHETSTONES] |\n | |\n | [Illustration: CANAANITE OR HEBREW NAILS] |\n | |\n | Cuts on this page used by permission of the Palestine Exploration |\n | Fund. |\n +-------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nBy this policy he pleased the people, both in the north and in the\nsouth. And after seven years of division the leading men of all the\ntribes came to David at Hebron, in Judah his headquarters, and made\nhim king over the entire Hebrew nation, north, east, and south.\n\n=David's victories.=--Soon after this David declared his independence\nof the Philistines. War broke out and for a time it went against the\nHebrews. But in the end they were able to rally their resources under\ntheir new leader, and inflicted two crushing defeats on their old\nenemies, which made them instead of the Philistines once and for all\nthe masters of Canaan.\n\nFrom the Philistines David turned against the other petty enemies who\nhad so often taken advantage of the weakness of the Hebrews. Already,\nwhile a vassal of the Philistines, he had thoroughly punished the\nAmalekites, in the deserts of the south; and now he gave the Ammonites\nand Moabites and other enemies on the east a taste of Hebrew warfare.\nBefore many years passed they had all learned their lesson, and there\nwas peace in Canaan.\n\n\nPROGRESS IN CIVILIZATION\n\nDuring all those years when the Hebrews were fighting for existence\nlife in their little villages and towns had been anything but\npleasant. Not only was there constant danger from human enemies and\nfrom famine, there was also a lack of the comforts and pleasures of\ncivilized life. There were no books to read, no musical instruments\nto play on, and few opportunities for any kind of recreation. They had\nonly coarse, rough clothing to wear, and coarse, ugly furniture for\ntheir homes.\n\n=The development of commerce.=--Now that peace and security had been\nachieved, David did much to make the daily lives of all his people\nhappier. One way was through commerce. The great merchants of those\ndays were the Phoenicians, the people of Tyre and Sidon, whose daring\nsailors steered their ships into every harbor on the Mediterranean Sea\nand even out upon the stormy Atlantic and up to the tin mines of\nBritain.\n\nVery wisely David made a treaty of friendship with Hiram, king of\nTyre, and as a result Phoenician artists and artisans came down to\nJerusalem and helped to beautify the city. Phoenician wares also began\nto be peddled in all the towns of Canaan: fine linen fabrics, such as\nthe Hebrews did not know how to weave; beautiful jars and cups, such\nas Hebrew potters had not learned to fashion; jewels of silver and\ngold and precious stones, over which Hebrew maidens hovered with\nlonging eyes. Soon one could see that the homes in these little towns\nof Judah and Benjamin and Ephraim were cleaner and better furnished,\nand the people were more neatly dressed. Commerce of the right kind is\nalways a blessing.\n\n=Education.=--Better than fine clothes and jewels and furniture are\nthe things that feed the mind. David himself was a skillful harpist,\nand no doubt this helped to make harp-playing popular. On one occasion\nthe ark of Jehovah, the sacred chest which had been carried in the\ndesert, was brought up to Jerusalem. It was accompanied by a chorus of\nsingers and a band of instrumental players, \"with harps and lyres and\ncymbals.\" In the worship of the temple at Jerusalem music from this\ntime on had an important place. And all up and down the land here and\nthere, one could hear in humble homes the tinkle of harp strings; and\nboys and girls who liked music could learn to play.\n\nIf not in David's time, then very soon after, the first Hebrew history\nbooks were written. These contained stories which had been handed down\nfrom generation to generation; stories about the beginnings of things;\nstories about Abraham and Moses and other early heroes.\n\nThere were, of course, only a few copies of written rolls of stories,\nas compared with the millions of volumes which are constantly being\nturned out to-day by our great printing presses. But these few were\nmuch read, and those who read committed many of the stories to memory\nso that they could repeat them again and again in their home circles.\nIn this way life grew more rich in pleasure and interest for many a\nHebrew youth and maiden.\n\n\nDAVID'S SUCCESSOR, SOLOMON\n\nAfter David's death his son Solomon was made King. He also encouraged\ncommerce, both by land and by sea. His ships sailed down the Red Sea\nto India, and back, and over the Mediterranean Sea to Spain. They\nbrought back, according to the author of First Kings, \"gold and\nsilver, ivory, and apes and peacocks.\"\n\n=Solomon's folly.=--Alas for the happiness of the people, Solomon was\na different kind of a man from his father. Like so many other sons of\ngood kings he was spoiled by too much luxury and too little\ndiscipline. He had the reputation of being very wise, but in reality\nhe was very foolish. His chief ambition was to have splendid palaces,\nand to make a great display of riches, like the kings of Egypt and\nBabylonia.\n\nIn order to build these fine buildings and have great numbers of\nservants it was necessary to extort the money from his people by heavy\ntaxes. They were also compelled to labor without pay in his quarries\nand elsewhere. So with all the increased wealth in the land and with\nall the seeming progress in civilization, the common people were\nreally wretched--almost worse off than in the old days of disunion and\nconfusion and fear.\n\n=The disruption of the kingdom.=--As a result of this cruelty and\noppression, the northern tribes, after Solomon's death, rebelled\nagainst his son Rehoboam, who seemed likely to become even more of an\noppressor than his father. The tribe of Judah in the south remained\nfaithful to the family of David. So the nation was split in two parts,\nwhich were never reunited.\n\nIf only all kings could be like David! He indeed was far from perfect;\nhe was guilty of some very wicked crimes. But on the whole he came\nnearer than most kings to the best ideals of the Hebrews for their\nrulers: a man \"from among thy brethren: ... neither shall he greatly\nmultiply to himself silver and gold, ... that his heart be not lifted\nup above his brethren, ... and that he turn not aside from the\ncommandment, to the right hand nor to the left.\"\n\n\nSTUDY TOPICS\n\n1. Look up Joab in a good Bible dictionary, and see how much David\nowed to this extraordinary man for his success.\n\n2. Read 2 Samuel 23. 13-17, as a good example of the devotion and\nloyalty David was able to awaken in his followers.\n\n3. With which did David do the more for the happiness of his people,\nwith the sword, or with his harp?\n\n4. Why did Solomon grow up with selfish and extravagant habits and\nideals? Read 2 Samuel 11, 12 for an explanation.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV\n\nTHE WARS OF KINGS AND THE PEOPLE'S SORROWS\n\n\nThe Hebrews did not greatly better themselves by the division of the\nkingdom and by the revolt of the northern tribes from Solomon's son.\nThere were still kings both in the north and in the south. And all\nthey cared about was glory and luxury for themselves.\n\n\nAN ERA OF PERPETUAL WAR\n\nIn order to get glory and wealth these kings made war on neighboring\ncountries. For a long time there was war between the northern and\nsouthern Hebrews. There were long and very bloody wars between the\nHebrews and the Arameans, whose kings ruled in Damascus. There were\nmany wars between rival candidates for the throne among the Hebrews\nthemselves. Especially was this true in the northern kingdom where,\nduring the two hundred years of its separate existence, there was a\nrevolution on an average every thirty or forty years. In such cases\nall the members of the existing royal family would be assassinated and\nall persons who defended them or were suspected of sympathizing with\nthem were put to death. After the murder of hundreds and sometimes\nthousands the new upstart conqueror would proclaim himself king.\n\n=Famine and pestilence.=--These constant wars not only brought wounds\nand death and sorrow to many homes, they also kept all the people poor\nand increased the deadliness of the other great historic curses of\nhumanity, such as famine. The money and labor spent on war might have\nbeen used in terracing hillsides and fertilizing fields, so that in\ntimes of drought the crops would not wholly fail and starvation and\ndeath might thus have been pushed back a little further from the\ncottages of the poor.\n\nWars also bring disease. In those days, epidemics of disease were\nfrightfully common at best. They knew nothing about sanitation. Even\nin the most important cities, sewage and garbage were dumped in the\nstreets. Leprosy was an everyday sight. Rats and other vermin swarmed\neverywhere except in the palaces of the rich; and when the soldiers\ncame home from war, bringing with them typhus fever or cholera or the\nplague, the people died like flies.\n\n=The dynasty of Omri.=--Among the best of the successors of David and\nSolomon were Omri and his son Ahab, in the north. They made peace with\nthe southern Hebrews in Judah and renewed the old alliance with Tyre.\nThey built as their capital the beautiful city of Samaria. Ahab\nespecially was greatly admired as a brave warrior and as a king who on\nthe whole tried to serve his country well. Yet even Ahab was a despot.\nHis own glory and wealth were to him of chief importance, and his\npeople's needs and sufferings secondary.\n\n\nBACK TO THE DESERT\n\nUnder these conditions it was natural that many people should look\nback with longing to the olden times, especially to the time of Moses,\nbefore the people had left the desert and settled in Canaan. All these\nnewfangled ways, they said, are evil. They have brought us only\ntrouble. Especially bad is the worship of these Baals instead of\nJehovah, the God of our fathers. No doubt Jehovah is jealous and angry\nand has brought war and famine and pestilence upon us for just this\nreason. Many, indeed, who did not altogether object to the civilized\ncustoms of Canaan were uneasy in their minds because of the worship of\nthe Baals. When Ahab made his alliance with the king of Tyre he had\nbuilt, in Samaria, shrines to the Baal of Tyre. This was in accordance\nwith the religious ideas of those days. When two countries made an\nalliance there was supposed to be an alliance between their gods. But\nthe Hebrews had made a special covenant to worship no other gods but\nonly Jehovah. So there were many who were opposed to the worship of\nthe Baals.\n\n=The Rechabites.=--One Hebrew clan known as the Rechabites, actually\nbecame nomads again and did all they could to persuade others to do\nthe same. They gave up their houses and lived in tents. They pledged\nthemselves to drink no wine or strong drink, and they were\nenthusiastically devoted to the worship of Jehovah only. Naturally\nthey hated Ahab for bringing in the worship of the foreign gods of\nTyre. They did much to cause the overthrow of the dynasty of Ahab in\nfavor of a general named Jehu, who was pledged to drive out the\nPhoenicians and their gods.\n\n\nTHE PROPHETS\n\nThere were also certain specially religious people, called prophets,\nsome of whom saw the evils which were ruining the happiness of the\npeople and fought against them. In the earliest days, these men who\nwere called prophets were much like the soothsayers of other nations.\nThey were supposed to have a special power of speaking revelations\nfrom God. Sometimes they went into trances. Sometimes they caused\nexciting music to be played in their hearing. Most of them spoke what\nseemed likely to be popular with their hearers. For example, once when\nAhab wanted to start a new war against Damascus, he sent for prophets\nand some four hundred were brought to him. \"Shall we go to war or\nnot?\" he asked. All but one, knowing that Ahab's heart was set on the\nmatter, answered, \"Jehovah says, go to war, and he will give you\nvictory.\"\n\n=Micaiah.=--The true prophets, however, were men of truth who\nworshiped Jehovah and waited for his teaching. Such a man was Micaiah.\nWhen Ahab asked him, \"What do you say?\" his answer was like the\nothers. But his manner was so sarcastic that the king kept asking him.\nHe finally declared that Jehovah had revealed to him that the proposed\nexpedition would end in disaster. For this Micaiah was thrown into a\ndungeon. But his prophecy came true. The Hebrews were defeated, and\nAhab himself was killed.\n\n=Elijah.=--The greatest leader in this movement back to the desert and\nto Moses, was a prophet named Elijah. He was like the Rechabites in\nhis aims. He was dressed like a desert nomad and his whole life was\ngiven to the cause of the old desert religion. He had a very clear\nunderstanding as to what was best in that religion. It was not merely\nbecause Jehovah might be jealous of other gods that Elijah fought\nagainst Baal worship, but also because Jehovah really stood for\njustice and righteousness as against the unrighteousness of the Baals.\nElijah was not only a champion of Jehovah; he was a champion of the\npoor against their oppressors, a champion of the common people against\nthe despotism of kings, as is so vividly and thrillingly illustrated\nin the story of Naboth's vineyard.\n\n=Elisha.=--Elijah's work was carried on after his death by another\nprophet named Elisha. He also seems to have been a friend of the\ncommon people. Many traditions of his helpfulness to them are recorded\nin the second book of Kings. But his chief aim was to overthrow the\ndynasty of Ahab. It was Elisha who, with the help of the Rechabites,\nlaunched the revolution of Jehu.\n\n=A disappointing outcome.=--Jehu was really no better than Ahab. He\nwas willing to drive out the priests of the Phoenician Baal, and he\noffered many sacrifices to Jehovah. But his chief ambition was for\nhimself. Instead of bringing peace and justice to the poor, suffering,\nwar-scourged people, his reign was horrible for its bloody killings.\nNo one was safe from his murderous jealousy.\n\nThere was needed something more than a mere revival of the \"old time\nreligion\" of Moses. There had to be purer and nobler ideas of Jehovah,\na better knowledge of the real nature of Jehovah and of what Jehovah\ndemanded of men, and of the kind of worship which would please him.\nTill then there was little hope of happiness for men and women and\nlittle children.\n\n\nSTUDY TOPICS\n\n1. Read 2 Kings 6. 24-30 for a vivid picture of the sufferings of the\ncommon people of Israel, as a result of constant wars.\n\n2. Read 1 Kings 20. 1-34 for some light on Ahab as an able king. What\nqualities are displayed by him, in the narrative of this chapter?\n\n3. Look up Rechabites in the Bible dictionary for a more complete\nnarrative about them.\n\n4. Is war more of a curse to the common people to-day than in ancient\ntimes, or less? Why? What classes still suffer most from war, the rich\nand powerful or the common people?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV\n\nA NEW KIND OF RELIGION\n\n\nAmong all ancient peoples, including the Hebrews, a large part of\nreligion was the burning of animal sacrifices on altars. Whenever a\nsheep or lamb or kid was slaughtered for food the blood was poured out\non the sacred rock, or altar, in which the god was supposed to dwell.\nAfterward the fat was burned on the same rock. It was believed that\nthe god in the rock drank the blood and smelled the fragrant odor of\nthe burning fat.\n\n=Whole burnt offerings.=--On special occasions, such as a wedding, the\nbirth of a child, the beginning of a war, or the celebration of a\nvictory, the entire animal was burned on the altar. The first-born\ncalves, or lambs, or kids of any animal mother were also regarded by\nthe Hebrews as sacred and were burned as whole burnt-offerings to\nJehovah.\n\n\nSACRIFICES IN CANAAN\n\nAfter the Hebrews settled in Canaan they adopted other kinds of\nsacrifices. Grains and fruits were offered as well as animals. Wine\nand oil were poured on the altars. Baked cakes were burned. One sheaf\nfrom every harvest field of wheat or barley was supposed to be waved\nback and forth before an altar of Jehovah. This was a sort of\nreligious drama by which Jehovah was thought to receive a share of the\ngrain.\n\n=Religious feasts.=--In Canaan also the Hebrews observed certain\nreligious festivals, which corresponded to the early, middle, and late\nharvest seasons; they were called respectively, the \"Feast of\nUnleavened Bread,\" the \"Feast of Weeks\" (or Pentecost), and the \"Feast\nof Tabernacles.\" All of these were joyous occasions somewhat like our\nThanksgiving Day, and at all of them each family offered to Jehovah\nsome part of the products of their fields.\n\n\nPRIESTS AND THEIR DUTIES\n\nThe altars where these sacrifices were offered were in charge of a\nspecial class of men, the priests. In the early days, in Canaan, there\nwas a little temple, or shrine, outside each town and village with one\nor more priests in charge of it. Sometimes wealthy men had private\nshrines and hired their own special priests. It was the business of\nthese men to know just how a sacrifice must be offered in order that\nit might be pleasing to Jehovah. There were certain rules and\nregulations handed down from generation to generation. There were\ncertain kinds of animals which could not be offered. It was important\nto know just what parts of each victim were to be burned. The various\nmeal offerings had to be prepared in a certain way. Yeast could not be\nused, nor honey.\n\n=The increasing number of priestly rules.=--As the centuries passed\nmore and more rules were worked out by the priests. This was their\nwhole business in life, and, of course, they made much of it. More and\nmore different kinds of offerings were invented; for example, incense,\nwhich was the burning of herbs which made a sweet-smelling smoke. The\nbooks of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, especially Leviticus, are\nlargely composed of these rules for sacrifices. The animals had to be\nwashed, killed, and skinned, according to certain directions. The\nblood had to be disposed of according to strict rule--some placed in\nthe horns of the altar, some on the priests, some on the worshiper\nbringing the offering, and so on. And the more there were of these\nrules, the more priests there had to be to remember and enforce them.\nThus it came about that all too frequently sacrifices came to be the\nchief thing in religion. Religion meant sacrifices and not much else.\n\n\nTHE REIGN OF JEROBOAM II\n\nJeroboam II, who reigned over the northern kingdom of Israel for some\nforty years, beginning about B.C. 790, was in some ways like Ahab, who\nlived a century earlier. He was victorious in war and brought peace\nand prosperity to his nation. These years of peace brought little\nhappiness, however, to the common people of Israel. They had already\nbecome so poverty-stricken during the long years of petty but cruel\nwars, under the earlier kings since Solomon, that they were\npractically at the mercy of a small class of nobles and wealthy\nmerchants who grew richer all the time while the people grew poorer.\n\n=Evil days.=--These rich men used false weights and measures. In\nbuying wheat from the farmer they would use heavy weights, and get\nmore than was right; in selling to the poor of the cities they used\nlight weights, and so gave out little for much. They corrupted courts\nand judges, so that no poor man could get his rights. They charged\nenormous rates of interest for the money which the poor were obliged\nto borrow. All over the land the mass of the people were living in\nhovels and selling their sons and their daughters into slavery to keep\nfrom starving, while the rich men and their families lived in luxury\nand in wasteful, extravagant display.\n\nNone of this shameful injustice seemed to weigh heavily on any man's\nconscience, for they were careful to keep up all the sacrifices to\nJehovah. And was not Jehovah showing his pleasure by granting them\nthese long years of peace and prosperity? They forgot the old lessons\nof Jehovah's justice which the nation had learned from Moses. Even\nMoses, according to their traditions, had given laws about sacrifices\nand offerings. These seemed to be the essential thing. So they kept on\noffering up costly sacrifices at their great temples and shrines, with\nstately and gorgeous ceremonials, and thought to themselves, \"How\npleased Jehovah must be!\"\n\n\nAMOS\n\nThere came one day to King Jeroboam's own shrine at Bethel a man in\nthe garb of a shepherd and speaking in the name of Jehovah, like the\nprophets. But what strange words are these which he utters?\n\n =\"I hate, I despise your feasts, and I will take no delight\n in your solemn assemblies. Yea, though ye offer me your ...\n meal-offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard\n the peace-offerings of your fat beasts. Take away from me the\n noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy\n viols. But let judgment roll down as waters, and\n righteousness as a mighty stream.\"=\n\nWhat this shepherd prophet was proclaiming was a religion in which\nburnt-offerings, or sacrificial ceremonies of any kind had little or\nno place, but which expressed itself in justice and righteousness\ntoward one's fellow men. What Jehovah wants is not sacrifices at all,\nhe said, but to stop cheating the poor: to throw away your false\nbalances, and set free the slave.\n\n=Amos' dire forebodings.=--In many addresses, as reported in the book\nwhich bears his name, with bitter and thrilling eloquence Amos tried\nto drive home this great message to the hearts of his fellow\ncountrymen. He warned them that unless they heeded, disaster would\ncome to the nation. For as surely as Jehovah demanded justice, so\nsurely would he punish injustice. Terrible are his pictures of the\ncalamities with which the guilty Israelites would be visited. Nor did\nhe appeal wholly to fear. There is now and then a pleading note in\nAmos. Honest and burning indignation and threats are indeed most\ncommon in the pages of his book; yet listen to this:\n\n =\"Thus the Lord God showed me: and, behold, he formed locusts\n in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth ...\n and ... when they made an end of eating the grass of the\n land, then I said, O Lord God, forgive, I beseech thee: how\n shall Jacob stand? for he is small.\"=\n\nThere speaks the shepherd pleading for his little sheep--\"How can\nJacob stand, for he is small?\"\n\n\nTHE RESULTS OF AMOS' WORDS\n\nAmos' mission to the northern kingdom seemed to be a failure. He had\ncome up from his sheep tending, in his home in Tekoa, in Judah,\nbecause he felt burning within him a message for his people. But he\nsoon went home. The chief priest at Bethel drove him out. And\napparently the people did not care. No doubt even the poor people in\nwhose cause Amos had so eloquently spoken were shocked by his words.\n\"What, are not our sacrifices holy and pleasing to Jehovah? Would he\nhave us stop offering up burnt-offerings? That is almost blasphemous.\"\n\n=Bread upon the waters.=--Yet there were some who listened. And the\nproof is found in the existence of the book of Amos in the Bible. Some\none cared enough to preserve and copy the first manuscript of Amos'\nsermons and to make still other copies. Another proof is the fact that\nwithin that same century three other supremely great religious\nteachers caught up his great idea of a new kind of religion and\nrepeated it in new and wonderfully convincing ways. Of these other\nprophets we shall learn more in the chapters to follow.\n\n\nSTUDY TOPICS\n\n1. Glance over the book of Leviticus, also the latter part of Exodus,\nand the book of Numbers. How important did the Hebrews evidently\nconsider the carrying out of sacrifices?\n\n2. Look up in the Bible dictionary Jeroboam II and Amos. Find out more\n(1) about the times in which Amos lived and (2) about his personal\nhistory and character.\n\n3. Read as much as you can in the book of Amos: chapters 1 and 2 and 7\nand 8 are most important for our study.\n\n4. Are religious ceremonies ever substituted to-day for the religion\nof justice and right? If so, explain how.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI\n\nA NEW KIND OF WORSHIP\n\n\nAmos seemed to think of sacrifices and burnt-offerings as mere\nformalities which distracted men's attention from the thing of real\nimportance, namely, just and righteous dealing between man and his\nneighbor.\n\nThere was another prophet who lived a little later than Amos. Perhaps\nas a youth he heard Amos speak. This was Hosea, who probably came from\nGilead east of the Jordan. This man saw even deeper into the truth of\nreligion than Amos, and his messages wonderfully completed and rounded\nout the great true words which the older prophet had so bravely\nspoken.\n\n\nTHE GOOD AND THE EVIL IN THE OLD SACRIFICES\n\nThe old religion of sacrifices was by no means wholly evil. When a\nfamily in those days sat down to a happy feast and gave some of\neverything in gratitude to Jehovah, God really was there, not in the\nsacred rock, but in their love for one another and for him. When they\npoured out libations and burned fat on the altar, God was indeed glad,\nnot because of the smell of the smoke or because he enjoyed drinking\nthe blood, but because his children were grateful.\n\n=Wrong ideas of God.=--On the other hand, these sacrifices, when\nmisunderstood, tended to give people a wrong idea of God as one who\nwas greedy for food and gifts. There was the greater danger of this\nwrong idea because of the character of the priests who were supposed\nto represent Jehovah. Many of them were very greedy indeed. The story\nof Eli's sons in 1 Samuel 2. 12-17 is an illustration. The priests\nwere supposed to receive for their own personal support a part of all\nthe gifts which were brought to the shrine. But the sons of Eli made\nit the rule that whatever came out of the meat kettle on a\nthree-pronged fork stuck in by the priest should belong to him. Very\noften, it is plain, the priest got everything. And naturally the\npeople came to think of Jehovah as like his priests--as a Being who\ncared only for gifts.\n\n=A worship based on greed.=--The worship of such a god, or of a god\nwho was thought of as being of such a character, would, of course, be\nvery far from the love and adoration which we Christians are taught to\noffer to our Father, and was really far from the kind of worship\nadvocated by devout Hebrews. It would be a sort of bargain-hunting\nworship: the people to bring gifts of the fat of lambs and libations\nof blood and wine, and the god to give them in return good crops of\nwheat and oil, and figs and grapes, and an abundance of silver and\ngold. If Jehovah would give these things, then worship Jehovah. If\nother gods and Baals would give more than Jehovah, worship them.\n\nIn short these sacrifices, as Hosea saw, were a kind of worship, and\nno worship is a mere formality, but is a vast influence for good or\nfor ill. Because of these wrong ideas the sacrifices had come to be\nmore and more an influence for evil. And you cannot have a righteous\nand happy human family in which men are just and kind to each other,\nwithout a true worship, growing out of a true idea of God.\n\n\nHOSEA'S EXPERIENCE AND MESSAGE\n\nThis young man from the lovely, grassy plains and valleys east of the\nJordan had had an experience which taught him much. He was by nature\na man with a loving heart. He loved his native land with a burning\npatriotism. By and by there came to him, as to most young men, the\nexperience of a passionate love for a beautiful girl. All the deep\nwells of tenderness in Hosea's loving heart were hers, and she became\nhis wife. For a time they were happy; then little by little it became\nclear that this woman, Gomer, did not really love him as he loved her.\nShe only wanted his money. And when she could get nothing more from\nhim, or could get more elsewhere, she left him. She was like the woman\nin Kipling's poem, \"The Vampire,\" \"she did not care.\" It hurt Hosea.\nFor a time the light of the whole world seemed darkened for him.\n\n=Reading a meaning in sorrow.=--Then like a flash the thought came to\nhim; Jehovah is just like me in this regard. He wants love, not gifts,\nfrom his people, a love which on their part does not fawn for other\ngifts from him in return, like the cupboard love of kittens purring\nfor cream. He loves his people Israel just as I love Gomer. That is\nwhy he asks us not to worship these other gods, the Baals; not because\nhe is jealous but because he is good. He wants us to learn a different\nkind of worship altogether--a worship which is not prompted by greed\nbut by love.\n\nWith his whole soul aflame, Hosea poured these new ideas into the ears\nof his countrymen.\n\n =\"I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God\n more than burnt-offerings.\"=\n\nThese great words were quoted by Jesus himself in one of his\ncontroversies with the Pharisees; they are one of the supreme\nutterances of human literature.\n\n\nSTORM CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON\n\nThis new insight of Hosea helped him to interpret hopefully the\ntroubles which at that time were coming thick and fast upon his\npeople. The forebodings of Amos were coming true. The kings of Assyria\nwere ambitious. They had set their hearts upon a great Assyrian empire\nextending from Babylonia to Egypt. For more than two centuries each\nnew king at Nineveh sent his conquering armies farther west and south.\nAlready in Hosea's day they had more than once invaded northern Israel\nand had taken away tribute. And the leaders of the nation did not have\nthe brains or the character to avoid a conflict with this merciless\nand resistless foe.\n\n=Jehovah loving even in punishment.=--Amos had declared that Jehovah\nwould surely punish his people because of injustices and wrongs which\nthey were inflicting on one another. Hosea agreed, but was able to go\nfurther, and say that in these very punishments which were now coming\nJehovah was still showing not his anger but his love. He was punishing\nin the hope that his children might learn their lesson and return to\nhim in love.\n\n=Fall of the northern kingdom.=--The nation, as a nation, seemed to\npay no attention to Hosea's pleadings. They went right on living their\nselfish and greedy and lustful lives. And in B.C. 721, as a result of\nprovoking the Assyrian king Shalmanezer to a fresh attack, the land\nwas again invaded and the city of Samaria was captured and sacked.\nThousands of the northern Hebrews were carried away as exiles to other\nlands and never returned. The northern kingdom was a failure. The\nreligious ideals and dreams of Abraham and Moses had not yet been\nfulfilled. The common people had had little opportunity for happiness\nor growth in knowledge and goodness. But the southern kingdom still\nexisted. And many a disciple of Hosea, some of them carrying scraps\nand rolls of papyrus on which his sayings were copied, fled to\nJerusalem, and there sowed the seed of his great message of a God not\nonly of justice but of love.\n\n\nSTUDY TOPICS\n\n1. Read Genesis 4. 1-15. In this story of Cain and Abel is there any\nhint as to how even an animal sacrifice might be true worship?\n\n2. Look up Hosea in the Bible dictionary, or in the chapter on Hosea\nin Cornill, The Prophets of Israel. Find out more about the times in\nwhich he lived and about his personal history.\n\n3. Read what you can in the book of Hosea. This is rather hard\nreading, but chapter 11 is not very difficult, and gives a good idea\nof Hosea's style.\n\n4. Which kind of prayer counts more for the happiness of all, prayers\nfor personal advantage, or prayers of love and gratitude to our\nFather?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII\n\nJEHOVAH NOT A GOD OF ANGER\n\n\nThere are other mischievous delusions in regard to the character of\nGod which we find among all races in the early childhood of their\nhistory. They think of their gods not only as greedy but as having\narbitrary whims and as often falling into fits of unreasonable and\ncruel anger.\n\n\nEARLY IDEAS OF JEHOVAH'S ANGER\n\nThe Hebrews were not entirely free from these wrong notions in their\nconception of Jehovah. Even in the story of Moses, for example, there\nis a strange narrative which declares Jehovah \"met Moses and sought to\nkill him\" and would have killed him except for the ceremonial rite\nwhich his wife Zipporah performed.\n\n=The story of the ark and the men of Beth-shemesh.=--Similar to this\nis the story of the wanderings of the ark in 1 Samuel. This ark, or\nsacred chest, was regarded as the special dwelling place of Jehovah in\nCanaan, his permanent home supposedly being on Mount Sinai in the\ndesert. When the ark was captured by the Philistines a plague broke\nout in every city where it was taken. Finally it was placed on a new\ncart with specially chosen cows to draw it, and sent back toward the\nHebrew border, and in the course of time it reached the Hebrew town of\nBeth-shemesh. And we read that \"the sons of Jeconiah did not rejoice\nwith the men of Beth-shemesh, when they looked upon the ark of\nJehovah. So he smote among them seventy men.\"[4]\n\n\nSACRIFICE AS A PROPITIATION OF JEHOVAH'S ANGER\n\nIt was just this idea of Jehovah as subject to fits of anger which\nprompted many of the old sacrifices. It was not merely that Jehovah\nwas greedy and could be bribed with gifts to grant favors, but also\nthat he was dangerous when his anger was stirred and hence sacrifices\nwere necessary to placate him.\n\n=Human sacrifices.=--An even darker side of the picture is the\nexistence of human sacrifices, even among the Hebrews, in the worship\nof Jehovah. The pathetic story of Jephthah's daughter is the most\nconspicuous example. This warrior had promised to sacrifice to Jehovah\nwhatever first came out to meet him, if he returned victorious from\nwar. Alas, it was his own daughter! Yet he did not dare to break his\nvow.\n\nThe story of Abraham and Isaac also proves that human sacrifices to\nJehovah were not unknown among the Hebrews. In this story Jehovah\nfinally intervenes and allows Abraham to offer up a ram instead of his\nown son. Yet the story implies the belief that Jehovah might demand of\na father that he kill his own son and burn him on the altar. These\nideas continued to be believed even down to the time of the prophets,\nAmos and Hosea, and the others about whom we will study.\n\n\nTHE PROPHET MICAH AND HIS MESSAGE\n\nAbout the time that Hosea was finishing his sad career in the north\nanother prophet in the south caught up the torch of light and truth.\nHis name was Micah. Like the two great men who preceded him, Amos and\nHosea, his heart was stirred to pity and indignation by the sufferings\nof the poor and by the injustice and luxury of the rich and powerful.\nIn plain, direct, and fiery sentences he denounced these evils and\nforetold punishment. Because of these things, he declared that\n\"Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the\nhigh places of a forest.\"\n\nMicah was especially bitter against those men who made religion their\nbusiness, and used it as a means of oppressing the poor--the prophets\nwho proclaim a holy war against those \"who put not into their mouths,\"\nthat is, those who do not give them presents. The priests, Micah says,\n\"teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money.\"\n\n=Micah's great message.=--It was, of course, the existence of\nsuperstitious fears in the hearts of the people which made it possible\nfor the priests and the prophets to join with the rich nobles in\npreying upon them. \"You give me this or that,\" \"You pay for this\nsacrifice or that--or I will call down a curse upon you from Jehovah.\nSome dreadful misfortune will come upon you.\" With one great word\nwhose throbbing pity for the ignorance and sorrow of men makes it\nanother of the great utterances of human lips, Micah cut the root of\nall such fears. Jehovah is not that kind of a God, he declared. He\ndoes not break out in fits of rage. He does not need to be wheedled\nback into good nature by costly offerings, perhaps even sometimes with\nthe costliest offerings of all, one's own darling children.\n\n =\"Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself\n before the high God? Shall I come before him with\n burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be\n pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of\n rivers of oil? shall I give my first-born for my\n transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?\n He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the\n Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy,\n and to walk humbly with thy God.\"=\n\n\nSTUDY TOPICS\n\n1. Read the stories of the ark, referred to in this chapter. See 1\nSamuel 6. 1-20; 2 Samuel 6. 1-9. What other way of explaining the\ndeath of Uzzah and of the men of Beth-shemesh occurs to you rather\nthan the anger of Jehovah? In the case of the men of Beth-shemesh,\nread 1 Samuel 5, with its clear indications of contagious disease.\n\n2. How has modern science helped to free mankind from the curse of\nsuperstitious fear?\n\n3. Look up Micah in the Bible dictionary, and find out all you can\nabout his personal history and work.\n\n4. Are superstition and wrong religious beliefs ever made the means of\nextortion and oppression to-day? If so, how?\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[4] 1 Samuel 6. 19, Greek version.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII\n\nONE JUST GOD OVER ALL PEOPLES\n\n\nTHE MESSAGE OF ISAIAH\n\nThe destruction of the northern kingdom by the Assyrian armies struck\nfear into the hearts of the Hebrews of the sister kingdom in the\nsouth. No one had dreamed that such a thing could happen. It is true\nthat from the beginning of the terrible onrush the Assyrians had been\nalmost irresistible. All the little nations which had stood in their\nway had been swallowed up.\n\nMoreover, the prophets Amos and Hosea had plainly foretold that some\nsuch calamity would be sent upon Israelites by Jehovah on account of\ntheir sins. But very few of them believed these brave and lonely\npreachers of the truth. \"Jehovah send the Assyrians against us! Why,\nthat is absurd! We are Jehovah's people, and he is our God. What has\nhe to do with the Assyrians? He may chastise us, but not by sending\nforeign armies to conquer us. What would he do if we should be\nconquered? He would have no nation to worship him.\" So they reasoned.\n\n=Jehovah too weak to protect his people?=--When, therefore, the\nAssyrians actually did come marching down from the Euphrates River,\nhundreds of thousands of them with their gleaming armor and their\nmultitudes of horses and war chariots, and besieged and captured the\ncity of Samaria, leaving it a ruin, most of the Hebrews, north and\nsouth, were sick with fear and bewilderment. For them with their false\nnotions it could mean only one thing: their God, Jehovah, was too\nweak to protect his people against the greater gods of Nineveh. The\nAssyrians said to them:\n\n =\"Let not thy God in whom thou trusteth deceive thee, saying,\n Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of\n Assyria. Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria\n have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shalt\n thou be delivered? Have the gods of the nations delivered\n them?... Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad,\n and the king of the city of Sepharvaim?\"=\n\nAgainst such taunts as these, the Hebrews, with their mistaken\nbeliefs, could bring no answer.\n\n\nTHE CRAZE FOR FOREIGN GODS\n\nWith their faith in Jehovah breaking down there was a great running\nhere and there after other gods and strange religions. Instead of\ntrusting quietly in Jehovah's watchful care many of the people\nresorted in their terror to soothsayers and mediums, to \"wizards that\nchirp and mutter.\" Jerusalem seems to have become almost as full of\nthem as the cities of the Philistines, which had always been famous\nfor their fortune-tellers and necromancers.\n\n=Alliances with other nations.=--Another favorite way of seeking\nsafety was through alliances with other nations and their gods.\nAccording to the beliefs of that age, when two nations made an\nalliance their gods were included in it. To overcome the Assyrians,\ntherefore, it would be necessary to make an alliance with some other\nnation whose gods were very powerful. So the people of Jehovah began\nto \"strike hands with the children of foreigners.\" The rulers of\nJerusalem set about making coalitions with the other nations of\nwestern Asia: with the Philistines, the Syrians, the Phoenicians and,\nmost of all, the Egyptians. The gods of the Egyptians were supposed to\nbe especially strong: Osiris and Isis were the chief of their deities\nand they were believed to be the gods of the underworld--of Sheol, or\nHades, the abode of the dead. So when these poor ignorant politicians\nat Jerusalem finally did succeed in arranging for an alliance with the\ncrafty and deceitful kings of Egypt they said to themselves: \"Now we\nare safe. The Assyrians cannot hurt us now. We have made a covenant\nwith Death.\"\n\n\nTHE STATESMAN-PROPHET, ISAIAH\n\nIt is good to know that among many misguided people there was one man\nwhose wisdom of the eternal Truth of God made him stand like a rock\nwhile the multitudes ran to and fro in uncertainty and despair. Isaiah\nwas a comrade and co-worker in spirit with the prophets named in the\nthree preceding chapters, Amos, Hosea, and Micah. It is by no means\nimpossible that he had listened to the sermons of Hosea, and thus\ncaught from him his inspiration. He must certainly have known Micah\npersonally, for they lived and preached only some twenty-five or\nthirty miles apart--Micah in the village of Moresheth and Isaiah in\nthe city of Jerusalem.\n\n=Isaiah's message.=--Isaiah's special message to his people was that\nall the nations of the world are subject to the righteous rule of the\nGod of righteousness, Jehovah; and that the attempt to find safety for\ntheir nation by alliances with other nations and their gods was\nutterly foolish and wrong. Undoubtedly this message found a response\nin the hearts of those who remained faithful to Jehovah.\n\nThis message grew out of the great and splendid ideas as to Jehovah's\ncharacter which Amos and his successors had been working out: that he\nwas a God of righteousness and love, not greedy for burnt-offerings,\nnot flaring up into fits of anger, and needing to be soothed and\nmollified by peace offerings; but a God who asks only for justice and\nfair-dealing among men, and for true love in response to his own.\nIsaiah repeated these great truths to his own people in Jerusalem in\nglowing words whose eloquence is unsurpassed. For example:\n\n =\"Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings\n from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well;\n seek judgment; relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless,\n plead for the widow....=\n\n =\"I will turn my hand upon thee, and will thoroughly purge\n away thy dross, and will take away all thy tin: and I will\n restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counselors as at\n the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called the city of\n righteousness, the faithful city.\"=\n\n=Isaiah's originality.=--The prophets and leaders who came before\nIsaiah had not fully grasped the idea of a God of all nations instead\nof one. Amos and Hosea had only caught glimpses of it. Before their\ntime, even the greatest of the leaders of Israel had thought of\nJehovah as for the most part the God of Israel only. But now in the\nmidst of the terror of cruel armies and ruined cities and smoking\nfields, when no one knew what to believe or where to look for comfort\nand protection, this great Isaiah was able to realize that Jehovah,\nthe God of righteousness and justice and love, was _the God of all\nhumanity_. There were no limits to his realm. All tribes and kingdoms\nand races were subject to his holy law. The Assyrians are but \"the axe\nthat he hews with.\" His providence rules over all. Whatever wicked men\nmay say or do, his will is done in the end. His plans are brought to\npass.\n\n=Isaiah's faith.=--With such a God as this in whom to trust, Isaiah\nwas able to show himself to his countrymen as a wonderful example of\nthe power of faith. When they were panic-stricken he was calm. \"Thus\nsaith the Lord God, ... In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in\nquietness and confidence shall be your strength.\" Do not rush off to\nother nations and other gods. They will fail you. Most likely they\nwill selfishly betray you. Only do the will of the just God, who rules\nthe nations, and quietly trust him. Do that and no evil can befall\nyou. He is all-wise and all-powerful, and he is good.\n\nSo at last, the religion of the one All-Father, which we call\n_monotheism_, was born in the mind and heart of a man, and began to be\nclearly proclaimed by human lips.\n\n\nSTUDY TOPICS\n\n1. Look up \"Isaiah\" in the Bible dictionary.\n\n2. Read Isaiah 6. 1-8 for his own story of the experience which led\nhim to be a prophet.\n\n3. What parts of this story in Isaiah 6. 1-8 express the idea of one\ngreat God of all nations? Look up \"Monotheism\" in the dictionary.\n\n4. Read chapter one or chapter five of the book of Isaiah for a good\nexample of his eloquent preaching.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIX\n\nA REVISED LAW OF MOSES\n\n\nAmos and the great prophets who followed him met with the same fate as\nmany other pioneers--only a few of their hearers heeded their words,\nor even understood them. But four great leaders in one century--Amos,\nHosea, Micah, and Isaiah--could hardly fail to make some real\nimpression on the minds and lives of their nation. Isaiah was perhaps\nthe most influential, partly because the others before them had\nprepared the way and partly because he himself lived and preached to\nthe people during a long period of time--more than forty years.\n\n=Isaiah's disciples.=--Another reason why Isaiah exerted so great an\ninfluence was that he organized little groups of his disciples into\ncircles for study. These groups met together from time to time, and\nread aloud the sermons of Isaiah and the other prophets, and talked\nabout how to apply them to their lives. We can see them seated in a\ncircle in the evening on the floor of one of those little homes\nopening into a narrow Jerusalem street. There would be a candlestick\nin the center, or an upturned bushel measure, with a candle on top of\nit. The circle would be composed of men; but on the outside eagerly\nlistening would be women and children. One of the men in the circle\nwould be seated by the candle reading from a roll of papyrus on which\nwere written the sermons of one of the prophets.\n\n\nTHE EVIL DAYS OF MANASSEH'S REIGN\n\nIt is well that these reading circles were started, for they kept\nalive the new truth of the reformer-prophets during the reign of a bad\nking, Manasseh. This man's father, Hezekiah, had favored the prophets.\nBut Manasseh, who became king when Isaiah was an old man, was opposed\nto all these new ideas. Most of the people of Judah probably agreed\nwith him. They still clung to the belief that the one sure way for a\nnation to be prosperous was to offer sacrifices to the most powerful\ngods. Now the kingdom of Judah, in spite of all their worship of\nJehovah, was still subject to the empire of Assyria. Great sums had to\nbe paid every year as tribute. \"What fools those prophets are!\" men\nsaid, as they talked together in the streets. \"See how much stronger\nthe Assyrian gods are than Jehovah!\" \"Last month I had to pay ten\nshekels for the tribute!\" \"If we want to prosper, we must worship the\ngods of Assyria.\"\n\n=Manasseh's persecution.=--Manasseh therefore proceeded to introduce\nthe worship of the moon-god, and the sun-god, and other deities of\nNineveh. He even set up altars to these divinities in the temple of\nJehovah at Jerusalem. When the disciples of the prophets spoke against\nall this he had them seized and killed, until he had \"filled Jerusalem\nwith innocent blood.\" Many a good man who had listened to the reading\nof Isaiah by candlelight in one of those reading circles now had to\nhide himself in some closet or cistern from the soldiers of Manasseh.\nThere is a tradition that the aged Isaiah himself was put to death\nduring this persecution.\n\nNot all of those who opposed Manasseh were killed, although they were\nfinally compelled to keep silence. Those little study circles still\nheld meetings in secret to read and talk and pray; and they kept\nlooking forward to a time when a different kind of a man would be\nking, and when they would be able once more to lead the people into\nthe way of justice and true worship.\n\nIn one of these little groups a remarkably wise plan was suggested.\nLet us take the laws which have been handed down to us from Moses, it\nwas said, and work them up into a sermon. Every one reverences Moses.\nLet it include the farewell address which Moses is said to have spoken\nto his people just before he died, and put into it all the laws of\nMoses, and let us show what they really mean. And by and by when\nManasseh is dead we may be able to read it to the people, and perhaps\nthey will listen.\n\n\nTHE WRITTEN LAW\n\n=The new law book--Deuteronomy.=--So they wrote the new book, and it\nis preserved in our Bible as the book of Deuteronomy. We find in it\nall the old laws which had been handed down from early times, and\nwhich were called the \"laws of Moses.\" And we find on every page\nsentences which show the influence of the great prophets, from Amos to\nIsaiah. Isaiah's influence is perhaps the most plainly seen,\nespecially his teaching that the people should worship Jehovah alone\nas the one ruler of the world. In Deuteronomy also we find a very\nsolemn and emphatic commandment bidding us love and worship only\nJehovah, the one true God. This is the commandment which Jesus called\nthe first and greatest of all.\n\n =\"Hear, O Israel. The Lord our God is one Lord; and thou\n shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with\n all thy soul, and with all thy might.\"=\n\nSuch a law as this of course forbade all those covenants with other\ngods which Isaiah denounced.\n\n=Laws helping the oppressed.=--All the prophets had been on the side\nof the poor and the weak, against the rich and powerful who oppressed\nthem. The authors of the book of Deuteronomy tried to shape this new\nlaw so as more fully to protect the poor. They made stronger all the\nolder laws which were intended to make life a little easier for the\nweak and unfortunate, and they added others: for example, laws\nprotecting debtors against greedy and merciless creditors, and laws\nforbidding the extremely harsh penalties which poor men were sometimes\nmade to suffer by rich judges.\n\nThere was an ancient law requiring that any Hebrew who had fallen into\na state of slavery on account of debt must be set free after seven\nyears. The new law book included this law, and added that the master\nmust not send him away emptyhanded at the end of the seven years, but\nmust give him food and clothes enough to keep him alive while he\nlooked for a chance to work and earn money for himself. The new law\nalso protected fugitive slaves from other countries. They were not to\nbe returned to their owners.\n\n=A compromise.=--All of the four reformer-prophets whom we have\nstudied had condemned the offerings and animal sacrifices of the old\nworship, not only because of the idolatry and other heathen and\nimmoral practices connected with them, but also on the ground that\nJehovah did not want sacrifices anyway, but only justice and love.\n\nBut the authors of the new law did not abolish sacrifices altogether.\nThey provided that all the small shrines, called \"high places,\" such\nas at Hebron or Gibeon, and all up and down the country should be\ndestroyed, but that sacrifices should be offered at Jerusalem and only\nthere. The old-time religious feasts, such as the Passover, could no\nlonger be celebrated at home. All the people must come up to Jerusalem\nfor them. No doubt it was thought that this would help to put down\nidolatry.\n\n\nTHE ADOPTION OF THE NEW LAW\n\nManasseh reigned fifty-five years. It was a long, weary time of\nwaiting for the disciples of the prophets. The new law book was put\naway in one of the closets of the temple for safe-keeping. The years\nwent by and most of the men who helped to write it died. At last,\nhowever, the end came for Manasseh. After a short period his grandson,\nJosiah, who was only eight years old, became king. The boy's older\nrelatives and friends were all against the ideas of old Manasseh and\non the side of the prophets. Little by little the principles of the\nprophets were put in practice. Among other things, orders were given\nto tear out from the Jerusalem temple the images and altars to the\nsun-god and the moon-god and other emblems of Assyrian worship. The\ntemple was also cleaned and renovated. While the carpenters were at\nwork the new law-book was discovered in the chest where it had been\nhidden and was brought to the young king and read before him.\n\n=Josiah's reforms.=--Josiah was deeply impressed and gave orders that\nthe reforms called for by the new law should be carried out. Officers\nwent all up and down the villages and towns of Judah tearing down the\nlittle temples, or \"high places,\" where so much heathenism had been\npracticed. And the people were told that several times each year they\nwere to bring their sacrifices to the temple at Jerusalem. Those were\nalso good days for the common people. There was a king now who \"judged\nthe cause of the poor and the needy.\" Many a poor debtor, when his\ncrops failed, appealed to the king's court in Jerusalem and he himself\nand his children were saved from slavery and their home from ruin.\n\nThe reform only lasted a few years--some twelve or thirteen--and then\nKing Josiah was killed in battle, and much of the old heathenism and\ngreed and injustice came back again in a flood. But the memory of the\ngood days did not quickly fade. It was the first great triumph of the\nteachings of the prophets--the men who kept alive the true ideals of\nAbraham and Moses.\n\n\nSTUDY TOPICS\n\n1. Read any part of Deuteronomy 1-5. Select any passages which seem to\nyou truly eloquent.\n\n2. Read Deuteronomy 12. 10, 11. What place is referred to by the\nauthor, when he writes, \"The place that Jehovah your God shall choose,\nto cause his name to dwell there\"?\n\n3. In the light of the history in this chapter, which is the more\nlikely to change human history, a battleship or a Bible class?\nExplain.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XX\n\nA PROPHET WHO WOULD NOT COMPROMISE\n\n\nThe new law-book seemed a great victory. Yet sometimes victories are\nmore dangerous than defeats. They lead to self-satisfaction. This was\ncertainly the case with this victory of the authors of Deuteronomy.\nThe people were careful to offer up their sacrifices at the temple in\nJerusalem, and very few offerings were brought to the old village\nshrines. But the real kernel of the truth which the prophets had\nproclaimed was in danger of being forgotten. This was the truth that\n_no_ forms of sacrifice, _no_ solemn religious feasts are of any\naccount in the sight of God unless accompanied by simple justice and\nbrotherly kindness between neighbors. This was the state of affairs\nagainst which one more great reforming prophet was raised up to\nfight--Jeremiah, of the little town of Anathoth, five miles north of\nJerusalem.\n\n\nA CONVERSATION IN A JERUSALEM STREET\n\nTo understand clearly what Jeremiah's message was and why it was\nneeded let us listen to a conversation between two citizens of\nJerusalem. This one is imaginary. But there must have been many, in\nreality, very similar to this.\n\n_First citizen:_ Did you hear of my good fortune? I have just got a\nfine piece of ground for almost nothing.\n\n_Second citizen:_ How?\n\n_First citizen:_ I had loaned some money to an old farmer, and made\nhim pledge me his field as security. Last summer the Babylonian\nsoldiers came through that valley and burned all the wheat and barley\nstacks. So the old man couldn't pay back the loan. He tried to tell\nhis story to King Jehoiakim, but the king drove him from the palace.\nSo I went and took his field.\n\n_Second citizen:_ What would the prophets have said to a transaction\nlike that? Did not Isaiah call down woes from Jehovah on those who\ntook away poor men's fields?\n\n_First citizen:_ I have just offered a sacrifice to Jehovah.\n\n_Second citizen:_ I suppose, then, it is all right. But did not the\nprophets speak against sacrifice, unless one remembered justice and\nmercy?\n\n_First citizen:_ Yes, but they were speaking of the old sacrifices on\nthe \"high places,\" at the village shrines. Everyone knows they were\nheathen shrines and hateful to Jehovah. I offered my sacrifice at the\ntemple yonder, just as we are told to do in the law of Moses, which\nKing Josiah's servants found in the temple.\n\nLook! Why is all that crowd gathered over there in the temple yard?\nLet us go and see what is happening. I heard some one say, that a\ncertain Jeremiah who calls himself a prophet, was to speak there\nto-day. All my friends who have heard him say that he is a false\nprophet.\n\n(They reach the edge of the crowd. Jeremiah is standing on the steps\nof the temple, addressing the people, as follows:)\n\n =\"Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the\n Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are\n these. For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings;\n if ye thoroughly execute justice between a man and his\n neighbor; if ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and\n the widow ... then I will cause you to dwell in this place,\n in the land that I gave to your fathers, from of old even\n forevermore. Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot\n profit. Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear\n falsely, ... and come and stand before me in this house, ...\n and say, We are delivered; that ye may do all these\n abominations? Is this house, which is called by my name,\n become a den of robbers in your eyes?\"=\n\n\nJEREMIAH'S MESSAGE OF A HEART RELIGION\n\nIt is clear that Jeremiah was fighting the same old battle that Amos\nand the other prophets had fought against a religion of mere empty\nceremonies. But the battle had grown even harder, because the old\nfalse practices had been accepted as though they were just the kind of\nreligion that Amos had preached. The people said, \"We are keeping the\nlaw of Jehovah,\" and so they were satisfied with themselves.\n\n=The law to be written on the heart.=--Jeremiah saw that this mistake\nhad come from relying too much on a written law. Something more than\nan outward law was needed before men could succeed in living together\nas brothers. It is so easy to keep the letter of the law, or to think\none is keeping it, while we lose the spirit of it. What is needed,\nJeremiah said, is a changed heart. Again and again he cried to the\npeople, \"Oh Jerusalem, cleanse thy _heart_.\" And in one of the great\nchapters of the Bible, the thirty-first of the book of Jeremiah, he\nlooks forward to a time when Jehovah and his people should be bound\ntogether in a new covenant--not a covenant written on tables of stone\nlike the one which Moses wrote at Sinai:\n\n =\"But this is the covenant that I will make ... after those\n days, saith the Lord. I will put my law in their inward\n parts, and in their hearts I will write it.\"=\n\nThe apostle Paul saw this promise fulfilled by the love which Jesus\nChrist awakens in men's hearts, so that they gladly and eagerly do the\nwill of God. On account of this prophecy of Jeremiah our Christian\nBible is called the New Covenant, or (from the Latin) the New\nTestament.\n\n\nJEREMIAH AND THE BABYLONIANS\n\nIn Jeremiah's time (a decade or so before and after B.C. 600) the\nBabylonians had taken the place of the Assyrians as the rulers of the\nworld. There was a powerful king, Nebuchadrezzar, on the throne of\nBabylon. And the existence of the kingdom of Judah depended on\nsubmission to him. But, just as in Isaiah's time a century before,\nthere was now a party in Jerusalem who were constantly plotting to\nrebel against the Babylonians, hoping for help from Egypt.\n\n=Jeremiah as a patriot.=--Jeremiah had no sympathy with them. He loved\nhis native land deeply and tenderly. But until the people were\n_worthy_ of liberty he was sure Jehovah would not give it to them.\n\nAgain and again they proved their unworthiness. Once when the\nBabylonian armies were knocking almost at the gates of Jerusalem they\nremembered that law about Hebrew slaves, which had been made even\nmore strict in the new law, Deuteronomy. According to this law, no\nHebrew could be kept in slavery longer than seven years. So in their\nfear of the Babylonians these rich nobles solemnly set free a great\nnumber of slaves whom they had been illegally keeping in slavery. A\nfew days later the hostile army, for some reason or other, withdrew.\nAnd within a month all these slaves who had been set free were seized\nand reenslaved. How Jeremiah denounced this hypocrisy!\n\n\nTHE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM\n\nIf Jeremiah's advice had been followed, the people of Judah would have\nbeen spared a world of sorrow. But the leaders of the kingdom seemed\nbent on dragging the whole nation into ruin. In B.C. 597, Jerusalem\nwas captured and some ten thousand of the inhabitants were carried\naway as exiles to Babylon.\n\nEven that lesson was not enough. Within a few years the new king,\nZedekiah, and his nobles again rebelled against Nebuchadrezzar.\nJeremiah protested and was called a traitor. Many times his life was\nthreatened; for a long period he was kept in a filthy dungeon, and\nalmost perished from hunger. But friends saved him. Very soon, in B.C.\n586, the city came to the horrible end which Jeremiah had so patiently\ntried to ward off. The city was captured by Babylonian soldiers and\nburned. Thousands were carried away as exiles. Thousands more fled to\nEgypt and to other foreign countries. Only the poorest farmers were\nleft to till the soil. David's kingdom and dynasty were ended.\n\nJeremiah himself was not taken to Babylon, but remained in Palestine.\nAccording to tradition, his last days were spent in Egypt, with a\nHebrew colony there. His life had been spent in keeping alive the soul\nof true religion in an age when few would listen. He is one of the\ngreat heroes of uncompromising truth.\n\n\nSTUDY TOPICS\n\n1. Look up the story of Jeremiah in the Bible dictionary.\n\n2. Read Jeremiah 1. 1-9, for a taste of his style of writing.\n\n3. One man sacrifices to a heathen god; another tries to bribe Jehovah\nwith a sacrifice as though he were _like_ the heathen gods:\n\n _a._ Which is worse?\n _b._ Which would the authors of Deuteronomy have considered worse?\n _c._ Which would Jeremiah have considered worse?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXI\n\nKEEPING THE FAITH IN A STRANGE LAND\n\n\nTwice within twelve years, first in B.C. 597, and again in B.C. 586,\nthe Babylonians took great companies of Hebrews as exiles from\nJerusalem to Babylon. Each time there must have been in the line of\nmarch some twenty-five thousand men, women, and children--an army\nwhich, marching eight abreast, would stretch at least five or six\nmiles.\n\nThese must have been sorrowful processions, especially the last of the\ntwo. For months they had suffered the horrors of a besieged city. Then\nhad come the break in the walls, the screams of frightened women and\nchildren, the heaps of corpses in the streets, and the black smoke and\nred glare of burning buildings; then the hasty setting out on the long\nroad to Babylon. Some of them perhaps were able to buy asses to carry\nthe little children and a few of their belongings. But most of them\nhad to trudge along on foot, fathers and mothers carrying the babies,\nand leaving behind them all their possessions except what could be\ngathered into a towel or a blanket. For a month or six weeks they\ntramped. If anyone fell sick, there was no time to take care of him.\nHe must drag along with the rest or fall by the wayside until he\neither recovered or died.\n\n\nTHE SETTLEMENT IN BABYLONIA\n\nWhen they reached the land of their captors they were not made slaves,\nbut were allowed to make their home together in settlements on land\nset apart for them. In these colonies they probably worked as\ntenant-farmers on the estates of Nebuchadrezzar's nobles. In the\nprophetic book of Ezekiel, who was among these exiles, we read about\none of these Jewish colonies by the river, or canal, called Chebar (or\nin Babylonian Kabaru), which means the Grand Canal.\n\n=The attractions of Babylonian life.=--What the Babylonians hoped was\nthat these people would forget that they were Hebrews and become\nBabylonians, just as immigrants from Europe become Americans. This is\nexactly what happened in many cases. At first, of course, the Hebrews\nwere bitterly homesick. The land of Babylonia was as flat as a floor.\nThe Hebrews longed for the lovely hills and valleys of their native\nland.\n\n =By the rivers of Babylon,\n There we sat down, yea, we wept,\n When we remembered Zion.\n Upon the willows in the midst thereof\n We hanged up our harps,\n For there they that led us captive required of us songs,\n And they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying,\n Sing us one of the songs of Zion.\n How shall we sing the Lord's song\n In a strange land?=\n\nBut the years went by, and they had time to look about in the new\ncountry. They found it full of opportunities for money-making. The\nsoil, watered by hundreds of canals from the Euphrates and Tigris\nRivers, was wonderfully rich. Everywhere there were prosperous towns\nand cities with great brick buildings, beautifully decorated with\nsculpture, and thronged with merchants. Ships laden with wheat and\ndates and with Babylonian rugs and mantles and other beautiful\narticles sailed up the rivers, or out to sea toward India. Many\nHebrews, or Jews (that is, Hebrews from Judaea), became merchants. In\ntheir own land they had been chiefly a nation of farmers. The\nreputation of the Jews for cleverness in trade began with these\nexperiences in Babylon when hundreds of Jewish boys obtained positions\nin great Babylonian stores or banks, and by and by set up for\nthemselves as merchants. Among the Babylonian contracts on clay\ntablets coming down to us from this period are many Jewish names.\n\n\nTHE TEMPTATION TO FORSAKE JEHOVAH\n\nThese young Hebrew merchants found themselves in a net-work of foreign\nreligious customs. When a customer signed a contract it was proposed\nthat he offer a sacrifice to the god Marduk, that the enterprise might\nprosper. There were religious processions and feast days in which\neveryone joined, just as we hang out flags on the Fourth of July.\nForeigners from other lands joined in these rites and thought nothing\nof it. Furthermore, some of these captive Jews thought that their\nHebrew God, Jehovah, had not protected them from these mighty\nBabylonians. Surely, the Babylonian gods were the stronger, and one\nshould pay them due reverence.\n\n=Memories of the prophets.=--On the other hand, even the dullest of\nthe Jews must have begun to understand that the religion of their\nprophets was a different kind of religion altogether--not _a_\nreligion, but _true_ religion; and that Jehovah was not like the\nbargaining, jealous gods of the other nations, but was God, with a\ncapital G, the one righteous Creator and Ruler of the world.\n\nMoreover, the prophets who had taught them to think of Jehovah in this\nway had again and again declared that just this calamity of exile\nwould come upon them if they as a nation continued to disobey\nJehovah's just laws; and what they had foretold had come to pass. The\nprophets must have been right. Their teaching must be true.\n\n=Hebrews in other foreign lands.=--There were probably almost as many\nHebrews in Egypt at this time as in Babylonia. Indeed, even before the\ndestruction of Jerusalem the constant wars on Canaan had compelled\ngreat numbers of them to seek for peace and comfort for themselves and\ntheir wives and children in Egypt, in Damascus, and even in far-away\nCarthage and Greece. The Jews to-day are scattered all over the world.\nThis began to be true of them from the time of the destruction of\nJerusalem.\n\nThese Jews who permanently made their homes in foreign countries were\ncalled _Jews of the Dispersion_. And they all faced the same\ntemptations as the exiles in Babylonia. Their problem was how to be\nloyal to their nation and their religion. Great numbers of them, like\nDaniel and his friends in the stories related in the book of Daniel,\ndid refuse to sacrifice to heathen gods and held fast to the nobler\nfaith which they had brought with them from Jerusalem. This was not\neasy. Not only were they tempted to go with the crowd and worship the\ngods of the land; they were also uncertain just how to worship\nJehovah. They could not offer sacrifices to him. Jerusalem was a\nthousand miles away, and the temple there was burned. Should they\nbuild a new temple for him, in Babylon? It was not certain whether\nthat would be lawful. The Jews in Egypt did build a temple to Jehovah.\nBut no others seem to have been able to do this.\n\n\nKEEPING THE SABBATH\n\nThere were some religious customs, however, which could more easily be\ntransplanted. One was the Sabbath Day. In the earlier centuries the\nHebrews had observed the day of the new moon with special sacrifices,\nand also, to some extent, the other days when the moon passed from\nfull to first quarter, then to the second, then to the third--in other\nwords, every seventh day. There was in the days before Moses no\nthought of resting from labor on these days, except as might have been\nnecessary in order to offer up the special sacrifices.\n\n=The Sabbath and the new law of Deuteronomy.=--One of the kindly\nchanges which the new law of Deuteronomy introduced was to make the\nSabbath a rest day for slaves and all toilers. On the Sabbath \"thou\nshalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy\nmanservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, ... that\nthy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.\"\n\nIn Babylonia and other foreign lands faithful Jews were especially\ncareful to keep the Sabbath by resting from all their work. No one\nelse did so, and the custom marked them as Jews. When a Babylonian\nwould propose to buy a wagon load of wheat on the Sabbath the Jew\nwould say, \"I cannot sell on that day; it is a Sabbath day to our\nGod.\" Boys and girls were not allowed to play with their Babylonian\nplaymates on the Sabbath. Such experiences helped them to remember\nthat they were Jews. They thought of it also as an act of respect to\nJehovah. It took the place of animal sacrifices. As the time went on\nthere grew up rules and regulations in regard to Sabbath-keeping which\nbecame more and more strict and elaborate.\n\n\nPRAYER AND PUBLIC WORSHIP\n\nAnother religious custom which can be practiced anywhere is prayer. It\nmust have been a great and happy discovery to many a homesick Jew when\nhe found that even though the temple at Jerusalem was far away, yet in\nhis own room \"by the river Chebar\" he could kneel, or even in the\nstreet he could for a moment close his eyes and breathe out a prayer\nto God and find in it fresh strength and hope and courage.\n\n=The synagogue.=--The weekly Sabbath rest also made it possible for\nthe Jews to meet together on that day for prayer and worship together.\nThe reading circles which Isaiah had organized, and out of which\nprobably came the law-book Deuteronomy, were continued in Babylonia,\nand the Sabbath morning, afternoon, or evening was a convenient time\nof meeting. They would gather in some private house and study the law\nand the writings of the prophets. Then they would pray. Those who were\nthe most learned would read and they and others would pray aloud.\n\nBy and by special buildings were set apart called synagogues. As time\nwent on these synagogue services rather than the services in the\ntemple, became the most important part of the Jewish religion. Our\nmorning and evening worship in the Christian Church grew out of the\nsynagogue service. It was the beginning of that worship of which Jesus\nspoke when he said: The hour cometh when neither in this mountain, nor\nin Jerusalem shall ye worship the Father.... But ... the true\nworshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.\n\n\nSTUDY TOPICS\n\n1. Read 2 Kings 25, or Daniel 1.\n\n2. Mention some other temptations which must have come to the Jews, in\nBabylon, besides the temptation to worship idols. Consider, for\nexample, their new experiences as traders.\n\n3. What are some good ways in which we may be helped to be true to God\nto-day when we are away from home.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXII\n\nUNDYING HOPES OF THE JEWS\n\n\nAs the Jewish exiles were led away to Babylon they asked themselves\nover and over again, \"Is this the end of our nation?\" It seemed like\nthe end. Their capital city lay in ruins. Their king was blinded and\nin chains. All the most intelligent people in the country were being\nled to a distant land, from which most of them would probably never\nreturn. The iron rule of the Babylonians was everywhere supreme.\n\nThere are other nations and races whose people might not have cared so\nmuch even if this had been the end of their national existence. But\nthe Hebrews from the beginning were proud of their race and ambitious\nfor its glory. They believed that it had been promised to Abraham,\ntheir ancestor, that they should become a great nation in their land\nof Canaan. This hope had grown stronger and stronger. Stories of the\ngreatness of King David were handed down from fathers to their\nchildren. To the best men and women among them the great teachings of\nsuch prophets as Amos and Isaiah were even more worthy of pride. \"We\nhave a knowledge of the true God,\" they said, \"such as no other nation\nhas. Surely there is a great future before us.\" And now all these\nhopes seemed lost forever.\n\n=The discouragement of the poor people in Canaan.=--Those who had been\nleft behind in Canaan when the Babylonians conquered the land were\neven more hopeless and wretched. The exiles soon made a place for\nthemselves in the busy, prosperous land of Babylonia. They earned\nmoney and lived in comfort. But the farmers on the stony hills of\nJudaea suffered untold hardships. Not only were they poor; they were\nalso harassed by bands of robbers. The city of Jerusalem, which had\nprotected them, lay in ashes. The Babylonian governor did not help\nthem. He was there only to collect taxes and tribute. So the old\nenemies, the robber tribes from the desert, came in and burned and\nmurdered and stole as they pleased. It is not strange that many of\nthese poor people felt that all was over for the Hebrew or Jewish\nnation. Many of them ceased to worship Jehovah and became heathen,\nlike the other tribes around Canaan.\n\n\nVOICES OF COMFORT AND HOPE\n\nIt was not easy, however, to crush the courage of the Jews. Out of the\ndarkness of those days we hear a whole chorus of voices, all of them\nsaying: \"This is _not_ the end of everything for us. Jehovah has not\nforgotten his promises to our ancestors. He will bring back the exiles\nfrom Babylon, and from other distant lands whither they have escaped,\nand will rebuild Jerusalem in all its beauty, and will restore the\nglory of our nation in the land of Canaan.\"\n\n=The prophecies in Isaiah.=--Many of these voices are found in short\npassages scattered through the writings of the older prophets. Two of\nthem are in Isaiah 9 and 11.\n\n =\"The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light:\n ... the rod of his oppressor thou hast broken.... For all the\n armor of the armed man in the tumult, and the garments rolled\n in blood, shall even be for burning, for fuel of fire. For\n unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the\n government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be\n called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father,\n Prince of Peace.\"=\n\n\"In other words,\" he reasoned, \"Jehovah will free us from the\ntyrannical Babylonians, give us an ideal king, who shall be wise and\njust and faithful, and under whose rule we shall see no more of the\nhorror and cruelty of war.\"\n\n=Ezekiel's prophecies of hope.=--Away off in Babylonia itself Ezekiel\nhelped to keep alive the hopes of the exiles. Even though the nation\nis dead, he told them, Jehovah can bring it to life. It will be as\nthough the dry and bleaching bones in some valley where a battle was\nlong ago fought should suddenly come together as human skeletons, and\nwarm living flesh should grow upon them once more. Ezekiel worked out\na kind of constitution for the new nation and the temple when these\nshould be restored.\n\nAll these brave leaders helped the Jews to believe in themselves as a\npeople. They listened to these men as they spoke in their synagogues\nin Judaea and in Babylonia. They handed from one to another the rolls\non which their words were written. And ever the children heard from\ntheir mothers these hopes which kept them from being completely\ndiscouraged: \"We are Jews. The Jewish nation is not going to be\ndestroyed. Some day the exiles in Babylon will return to the old\ncountry. We will have a king of our own. And we will build the great\nnation which Jehovah promised Abraham.\"\n\n\nTHE BEGINNINGS OF A RESTORED JUDAH\n\nIn the year B.C. 538, the Babylonian empire was conquered by Cyrus,\nthe Persian. There was scarcely any resistance on the part of the\nBabylonians. And one of his first acts in the conquered city was to\nissue a proclamation that captives and exiles from other lands might\nreturn if they wished. It was the chance for which the Jews for forty\nyears had been hoping. Now at last they could go back over that\nthousand-mile journey, up the Euphrates, across to the coast land, and\ndown to Canaan. But alas! too many years had passed. Most of those who\nhad come to Babylon as grown people and who remembered Canaan as home\nwere now dead. Most of the living Jews had grown up in Babylon and\nwere comfortably settled there. Yet some did return, and from time to\ntime others kept returning. These men who thought enough of their\nnation to go back to the home land and help it in its weakness and\npoverty almost always became leaders.\n\n=The new temple.=--It may have been a group of these leaders returned\nfrom Babylon who started the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem in\nthe year B.C. 520, just sixty years after the old temple of Solomon\nwas burned by the soldiers of Nebuchadrezzar. There were two prophets,\nHaggai and Zechariah, who did much to stir up the people to this work.\nSome of their words are preserved in the Old Testament books which\nbear their names. These men may have been returned exiles. The new\nbuilding was erected on the same old foundation and was finished in\nfour years. It was dedicated amidst the shouts of the people, while\nold men and women, who as children had seen the former temple before\nit was destroyed, wept for joy that at last a house had been rebuilt\nfor Jehovah. It seemed like the beginning of better times for their\nnation.\n\n\nTHE GREATEST OF THE PROPHETS OF HOPE\n\nYet the years that followed the building of the new temple were sad\nand disappointing. The better days did not seem to come. The walls of\nJerusalem still lay in ruins. The robber tribes still made their cruel\nraids. The poor people suffered most, for they were oppressed and\nplundered by the richer men even of their own people. \"What has become\nof Jehovah?\" men asked. \"Where are his promises to Abraham? Why does\nhe allow even his most faithful servants to be oppressed--those who do\nnot oppress others; who obey his just laws, and who are merciful to\ntheir brothers?\"\n\n=The great unknown.=--About this time there came to the people of\nIsrael a new message from one of the greatest prophets of all those\nwhom God has raised up in any nation. He is sometimes called the\n\"Great Unknown,\" because we to-day know nothing about his personal\nlife, not even his name. His great messages to his fellow Jews are\nfound in the latter part of the book of Isaiah, beginning with chapter\n40. The first verse of this chapter strikes the keynote of comfort\nwhich runs through all the chapters to follow.\n\n =\"Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye\n comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare\n is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; that she hath\n received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins.\"=\n\nWith words that sing like a beautiful instrument of music he tells the\npeople that God has not forgotten them; that the scattered exiles\nwill be brought back to the home land; that the ruined city,\nJerusalem, will be rebuilt and made more lovely than before; that a\nrule of justice will be established; and that the blessings of peace\nand happiness will come to all.\n\n=The greatness of service.=--Even better than these promises of\nhappiness, our unknown prophet helped the people to understand more\nclearly what it means to _be_ a great nation. He did not believe that\nthe God of heaven and earth would make a favorite of any one nation.\nInstead he taught that Jehovah had chosen Israel to be a servant\nnation for him, to serve all other nations by teaching them about the\ntrue God.\n\n =\"I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that\n thou mayest be my salvation to the end of the earth.\"=\n\nHe explained in this way even the undeserved suffering which many of\nthe best people of Israel were enduring. Israel thus became a type of\nHim who was \"despised and rejected of men.\" To be chastised and\nafflicted and oppressed is not so hard to bear if it is all a part of\nJehovah's plan for men. The ideal in the Old Testament becomes a\nreality in the New.\n\nSo for the first time the idea came into the world that Abraham's\ndreams of a greater and nobler nation and God's promises to Abraham,\nMoses, David and the rest were not for the Hebrew people only, but for\nall men; that beginning with this little nation God was making a\nbetter world; a world of love, instead of selfishness and hate; of\nhappy work and play, instead of misery and hopelessness and war.\n\nOf course very few of the prophet's hearers understood him. But more\nand more the Jews were filled with the thought that somehow God had a\ngreat future for them. Boys and girls, as they grew up, wondered if\nthey might not become leaders, a new Moses, a second David, or Elijah,\nto play some part in bringing the great future which God had promised.\n\n\nSTUDY TOPICS\n\n1. Read Isaiah 40 or 49 for a taste of the writing of the \"Great\nUnknown.\"\n\n2. Read Ezekiel 2. 1-7, or 14, for a similar taste of this prophet's\nmessage and style.\n\n3. Which of these two prophets do you consider the greater?\n\n4. Is there evidence to-day that the Jews still believe in a restored\nnation?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIII\n\nTHE GOOD DAYS OF NEHEMIAH\n\n\nAbout seventy years after the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem a\ncommittee of Jews went to Persia to seek aid for their distressed\ncountry from their more prosperous kinsfolk. In the Persian capital,\nSusa, they found a man named Nehemiah, who was cup-bearer and personal\nadviser to the king of Persia. He was a man of good sense, of kindly\nsympathy, and of great ability--just the man to help them. They told\nhim how the walls of the city of their fathers had never been rebuilt\nin all these years since the Babylonians had captured it, and how the\npoor people suffered from robbers and oppressors, who took advantage\nof their helplessness.\n\n\nNEHEMIAH'S GREAT ADVENTURE\n\nAll this was news to the young man. They did not have newspapers and\nmagazines in those days, and people in one part of the world knew\nlittle about what was going on in other parts, even those near by. The\nstories told by his brother Jews made Nehemiah sad, and his sadness\nshowed in his face even when he came before the king. This was\ndangerous, for a part of his duty was to keep the king in a cheerful\nhumor. But his Majesty was not angry, but asked him \"Why are you so\nsad?\" Nehemiah answered by telling him the story of his native land\nand its pitiable condition; and then and there with a prayer in his\nheart he asked the king to give him a leave of absence, and to permit\nhim to go to Jerusalem and help the people there to rebuild the\nwalls.\n\n +-------------------------------------------------------------------+\n | [Illustration: REMAINS OF WALLS OF THE CANAANITE CITY, MEGIDDO] |\n | |\n | [Illustration: PART OF CITY WALL AND GATE, SAMARIA] |\n | |\n | Cuts on this page used by permission of the Palestine Exploration |\n | Fund. |\n +-------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\n=Why walls were greatly needed.=--All cities in those days were\nsurrounded by walls. These were necessary, because no government had\nyet been strong enough to rid the country of the bands of robbers who\nmade their dens in almost every cave or lonely valley. Not only the\nroad between Jerusalem and Jericho, of which Jesus tells, but on\nalmost all roads one was in danger of falling among thieves. In the\ndeserts on the edge of Palestine whole tribes lived by robbery, and\nwere large enough and well enough organized to defeat good-sized\narmies. Hence no city was safe unless it was well fortified.\n\nNehemiah's request was granted by the king of Persia. So, with letters\nto the governors of the provinces through which he was to pass, the\nyoung leader set out, perhaps on camel-back, to Jerusalem. After\nlooking about and seeing for himself the condition of the city, and\nthe work which needed to be done, he called the people together and\nproposed that they rebuild the walls. His energy carried the day. They\nanswered, \"Let us rise up and build.\"\n\n\nTHE WALLS REBUILT\n\nThe task which Nehemiah had undertaken was a difficult one. Jerusalem\nis situated on a ridge, with deep valleys on all sides except the\nnorth. The walls did not need to be high where there were cliffs or\nsteep slopes falling away into the valley. But along the entire north\nside, and in many other places also, they had to be at least thirty\nfeet high, and fifteen or twenty feet thick at the base. The stones\nand bricks for this were buried in the rubbish where the old walls\nhad been battered down. They had to be dug up and dragged into their\nplaces, stone by stone. Most of the work had to be done by hand,\nalthough they perhaps used asses with basket-paniers for carrying lime\nand sand. They may have constructed small cranes for lifting the\nheaviest stones, but they had very little machinery.\n\n=Difficulties overcome.=--For a time the work went merrily forward.\nBut soon their rapid progress became known and those who had prospered\nbecause of their weakness became jealous. There was a certain\nSanballat, governor of Samaria, who wanted to keep Jerusalem helpless\nso that Samaria might always be the chief city in the land. They were\nwilling that the poor people of Jerusalem should go on suffering from\nthe attacks of cruel bandits if only they themselves could keep on\ngrowing richer. He and others did all in their power to stop the work.\nThey organized a force of men and planned to attack and kill the\nbuilders. But Nehemiah had his workers carry their swords as they\nworked, and arranged for signals at which all should rush to the help\nof any part of the wall which might be attacked. He also kept the\npeople working at top speed from early morning every day \"until the\nstars appeared,\" and cheered them on when they were tired and\ndiscouraged.\n\nTheir enemies tried all kinds of tricks; they threatened to report to\nthe king of Persia that Nehemiah was organizing a rebellion; they\nplotted to seize Nehemiah himself. But the man was too clever for\nthem. The walls kept steadily going up and up. The gates were set in\nplace and locked; and at last, fifty-two days, or just a little more\nthan seven weeks after the first stone was laid on the old\nfoundations, the work was done.\n\nOnce more they could lie down in peace behind protecting walls, and\nnot tremble at the thought that fierce robbers might swoop down upon\nthem before the morning light to plunder, burn, and murder. Once more\nthey could begin to live their lives in peace and plan for the future.\nTraders could bring their goods into the city without fear of losing\neverything. Men could buy and sell and prosper.\n\n\nNEHEMIAH'S REFORMS\n\nBut security from outward foes is not enough to bring happiness to a\npeople. Even before the walls were finished some of the poor people\namong the Jews came to Nehemiah with a bitter complaint against their\nrich neighbors. \"We are starving,\" they said. Others said: \"We have\nmortgaged our fields in order to borrow money that we may buy food for\nour children. And now because we cannot pay these men take our fields\nfrom us, and even sell our sons and daughters into slavery.\" It was\nthe old story of greed and oppression. Those who were stronger and\nmore fortunate used their advantage to oppress their brothers and\nextort from them all that they could pay. So a few men were able to\nlive in luxury, even in those troubled days, while the great majority\nsuffered in poverty and misery and despair.\n\n=The great massmeeting.=--In that little country of Judaea it was\npossible to gather into an assembly, perhaps in the open space in\nfront of the temple, men from almost every country village and city\nstreet. Such an assembly Nehemiah called and laid before it the\ncomplaints he had received. He told the rich nobles to their faces:\n\"You exact usury, every one, of his brother. The thing you do is not\ngood.... I pray you leave off this usury.\" The nobles had nothing to\nsay. Every one knew that what Nehemiah said was true. Then he went on:\n\"Restore to them their fields, their vineyards, their olive-yards, and\ntheir houses, also the grain, the new wine, and the oil that you exact\nfrom them.\" Then said they, \"We will restore them.\"\n\nAnd Nehemiah made them take oath to carry out their promise. \"Also I\nshook out my lap,\" Nehemiah writes in his memoirs, \"and said, So God\nshake out every man from his house, and from his labor, that\nperformeth not this promise; even thus be he shaken out and emptied.\nAnd all the congregation said 'Amen,' and praised the Lord. And the\npeople did according to this promise.\"\n\n=The beginnings of a just and happy nation.=--Nehemiah could not stay\nlong in Jerusalem. But he was able to make another visit a few years\nlater. And for a time at least his ideas were carried out. During this\ntime there was happiness among the people. They all had something to\neat and clothes to wear. All fathers and mothers had a little time to\nplay with their children after the close of work each day. All who\ncould read had a little time to study the rolls of the prophets and\nthe law of Jehovah. And all were brothers. More than ever before the\nold dreams, handed down from Abraham, had begun to come true.\n\n\nSTUDY TOPICS\n\n1. Look up the story of Nehemiah in the Bible dictionary.\n\n2. Read Nehemiah 1-2, or 5. 1-6, 16.\n\n3. On the right side of the line, below, write what in your judgment\ncorresponds to the men and conditions of Nehemiah's time.\n\n_Nehemiah's Time_ | _Our Own Time_\n |\n_a._ Walls around the city. | _a._ ___________________________\n |\n_b._ Robbers, and enemies such as | _b._ ___________________________\n Sanballat. |\n |\n_c._ The poor and enslaved people. | _c._ ___________________________\n |\n_d._ Nehemiah. | _d._ ___________________________\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIV\n\nHYMN AND PRAYER BOOKS FOR THE NEW WORSHIP\n\n\nWe have seen that a new kind of public worship of God had been growing\nup among the Hebrews, beginning with the time when the prophets began\nto condemn the misuse of the old animal sacrifices. The new worship\nconsisted chiefly of prayer. We have seen how the exiles in Babylon\nbegan to come together on the Sabbath days to study the law and other\nsacred writings, and also for prayer. Those exiles who returned to\nJudaea brought this custom with them. Special buildings, called\nsynagogues, were erected in Judaea as well as wherever there were\nfaithful Jews in other lands. These synagogues rather than the temple\ngradually came to be the real home of the Jewish religion even in\nJerusalem itself. The chief part of the synagogue service was always\nthe study of the Scriptures. But prayer was also given an important\nplace.\n\nIn the temple also, after it was rebuilt, public prayer was regarded\nas very important--even if not quite so important as the regular\nburnt-offerings. There were also prayer-hymns, sung by the people and\nby special choirs.\n\n=Making hymnals and prayer books.=--In our churches, to-day, we could\nscarcely conduct our services without the hymn books scattered through\nthe pews. In some denominations there is a prayer book, which is\nconsidered just as necessary as the book of hymns. In those ancient\nsynagogues and in the temple service the Jews found such books\nneedful. Had we gone into one of their meetings, we would not indeed\nhave found a book waiting for us in the seat or handed to us by the\nusher. The art of printing was unknown. Books could not be purchased\ncheaply by the hundred. Each copy had to be written out by hand with\npen and ink on a roll of papyrus. But we would probably have\ndiscovered that the leader of the worship had a book of prayers and\nhymns before him. He would read them, line by line, each Sabbath for\nthe others to memorize. To make this task of memorization easier many\nof the Jewish hymns were written in acrostic form--that is, each line\nor stanza began with a different letter in the order of the Hebrew\nalphabet.\n\n\nHYMN AND PRAYER BOOKS IN THE BIBLE\n\nOur book of Psalms is a collection of smaller collections of just such\nhymns and prayers to be used in worship. Each one of these smaller\ncollections came out of some synagogue or group of synagogues, or was\nprepared by the members of one of the choirs who led the worship in\nthe temple. By studying these we may learn something about how they\nwere used.\n\n=The Prayers of David.=--This was the title of one of these smaller\nbooks. It contained Psalms 2 to 41, and some others of our book of\nPsalms. All of these are headed in our Bible, \"A Psalm of David.\"\nThese words, in the original Hebrew, mean \"dedicated to David.\" The\nlast page in this smaller book is perhaps now found where our Psalm 72\ncomes to an end with the words, \"The Prayers of David the Son of Jesse\nare Ended.\" This sentence corresponded, in the little book, to the\nwords, \"The End,\" in our modern books. It was copied in what is now\nour book of Psalms, even though it is no longer \"the end.\"\n\nThese \"David\" hymns were probably written not only by David, but as\nwell by members of a synagogue of worshipers who were poor and\noppressed. There are a great number of references to \"enemies.\"\n\"Deliver me not over unto the will of mine adversaries.\" \"Thou\npreparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.\" These\npeople probably lived in the days before the reforms of Nehemiah, when\nthere were indeed many enemies both outside of Jerusalem and within\nthe city, heathen robbers, and rich oppressors of their own race, men\nwho cheated them and who mocked them when they prayed for help to\nJehovah.\n\n=The Pilgrim Songs.=--Another very different hymn book embedded in our\nbook of Psalms is one which we may call the \"Pilgrim Songs.\" It is\nfound in chapters 120 to 134 of our Psalter. All of these psalms have\nthe title, \"A Song of Ascents.\" This probably means a song to sing on\nthe ascent to Jerusalem. These come from the happy time after Nehemiah\nwhen the city was safely protected by walls. Because of this blessed\nsafety it was now possible for the people once more to go on\npilgrimages to the great annual religious feasts as prescribed in the\nlaw-book of Deuteronomy. Before the walls were rebuilt such gatherings\nof pilgrims with their gifts would merely have been an invitation to\nrobbers. But now the custom of pilgrimages was renewed, and they came\nto be among the happiest events of the year in the lives of Jewish men\nand women and older boys and girls.\n\nThe journey to Jerusalem was usually made in large companies or\ncaravans for the sake of protection. For the roads outside of\nJerusalem were by no means safe. And naturally in such a crowd of\nfolks from the home village there would be much singing. These\n\"Pilgrim Songs\" grew out of the spirit of these journeys. They are\nfilled with gratitude to God for his kindness, and with trust in his\ncare, and with pride in their beautiful city Jerusalem which God had\nhelped them to rebuild.\n\n =\"I was glad when they said unto me,\n Let us go into the house of the Lord.\"\n\n \"As mountains are round about Jerusalem,\n So the Lord is round about them that fear him.\"=\n\n\nHEBREW MUSIC AND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS\n\nThese hymns were frequently sung to the accompaniment of instrumental\nmusic. There are many allusions in the book of Psalms and elsewhere in\nthe Old Testament to the harp (_kinnor_), the psaltery (_nebel_), the\ncornet (_shophar_) and other instruments.\n\nWe know just how they looked, for pictures of them, or at least of\nsimilar instruments, are found on Egyptian and Babylonian monuments.\nThe harp was probably like a large guitar, only it was played like a\nmandolin, with a plectrum. The psaltery or lute was a larger-sized\nharp. The cornet or trumpet was simply a curved ram's horn blown with\nthe lips like our cornets; there was also another form made out of\nbrass, long and straight. The Hebrews also used a wind instrument like\nour flute, a pipe with holes on the side for making the different\nnotes. They seem also to have been very fond of percussion\ninstruments--the timbal, a small drum, and the cymbals, metal plates\nclashed together.\n\nIt is impossible to know how far the Hebrews had developed the art of\nmusic. It seems most likely that the best they ever learned to do\nwith these various instruments would have sounded to us more like a\nloud banging, twanging noise than like our own melodies and harmonies.\n\n=Influence of this worship of prayer and song.=--Nevertheless the\nprayer-hymns of which we have told could not fail to wield an\ninfluence on the lives of those who sung them. Boys and girls heard\nthem week by week until they could not forget them. When they were\ntempted to wrongdoing these melodies rang in their ears. For in all\nthese collections there were great hymns, written by men who had\ncaught the spirit of God as had Amos and Hosea and their\nsuccessors--men whose souls were white, whose love was tender, and\nwhose courage was unshakable. Only such men could write such lines as\nthese:\n\n =\"Lord, who shall sojourn in thy tabernacle?\n Who shall dwell in thy holy hill?\n He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness,\n And speaketh truth in his heart.\n He that slandereth not with his tongue,\n Nor doeth evil to his friend,\n Nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor.\"=\n\nOr these:\n\n =\"Thou delightest not in sacrifice; else would I give it:\n Thou hast no pleasure in burnt-offering.\n The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit:\n A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.\"=\n\nThese words and scores of other passages just as great set to music\nlong since forgotten but in those days sweet to the ear, helped untold\nmultitudes to do justice and to love mercy, to confess their sins, and\nto find strength and hope in God.\n\n +-------------------------------------------------------------------+\n | [Illustration: CANAANITE PIPE OR FIFE] |\n | |\n | [Illustration: AN EGYPTIAN HARP] |\n | |\n | [Illustration: AN ASSYRIAN UPRIGHT HARP] |\n | |\n | [Illustration: AN ASSYRIAN HORIZONTAL HARP] |\n | |\n | [Illustration: A BABYLONIAN HARP] |\n | |\n | [Illustration: JEWISH HARPS ON COINS OF BAR COCHBA, 132-135 A.D.] |\n | |\n | [Illustration: ASSYRIAN DULCIMER] |\n | |\n | Cuts on this page used by permission of the Palestine Exploration |\n | Fund. |\n +-------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\n\nSTUDY TOPICS\n\n1. Of the \"David\" psalms, read any of the following chapters: 11, 13,\n15, 23, of the book of Psalms.\n\n2. Of the \"Pilgrim\" psalms, read chapter 121 or 124 or 126.\n\n3. Which of these do you like best?\n\n4. Look up words scattered through the Psalms which appear to be\nmusical directions.\n\n5. In what ways did the following Psalms help the Jews to realize\ntheir hopes?--\n\n _a._ 15.\n _b._ 51.\n _c._ 124.\n\n6. For a good example of one of the prayers, in the temple, read 1\nKings 8. 27, 28.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXV\n\nA NARROW KIND OF PATRIOTISM\n\n\nAll nations like to think of themselves as superior to the rest of\nmankind. The Greeks used to despise all foreigners as \"barbarians.\" We\nin America ridicule immigrants from other countries and call them\nunpleasant names. The Jews also made the same mistake of despising\npeople of other races and nations. We find laws even in so just a\nlaw-book as Deuteronomy which are unfair to foreigners. Jews were\nforbidden to exact interest from fellow Jews, but they were permitted\nto exact it from foreigners. The flesh of animals which died of\nthemselves could not be eaten by Jews, but they might sell it to\nforeigners.\n\n\nTHE INCREASING HATRED TOWARDS FOREIGNERS AFTER THE EXILE\n\nWe have seen how the exiles in Babylonia kept the Sabbath and went to\nthe synagogue in order that they might continue to be Jews and might\nnot lose their Jewish religion, the worship of Jehovah. As time went\non they found it necessary to be more and more strict. As their girls\nand boys grew up they fell in love with Babylonian young men and young\nwomen. But if these young Jews had married Babylonians, the children\nwould have grown up as Babylonians in customs and religion. So all\nintermarriages were forbidden.\n\n=The fight against intermarriages in Judaea.=--When these exiles\nreturned from Babylonia to Jerusalem they were shocked to find that\nthe Jews there had not been strict in this matter. They had taken\nwives and husbands from the Moabites, and Edomites, and other nations\naround Judaea.\n\nIt is hard for us to see that this was wrong, for these people\nprobably became worshipers of Jehovah, like Ruth the Moabitess in the\nbeautiful story in the Bible, who said to her Jewish mother-in-law,\n\"Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.\" The exiles from\nBabylon, however, including so good and wise a man as Nehemiah, fought\nwith all their might against all intermarriages. Without doubt the\nmotive, which was to protect the Hebrews from idolatry, was good, but\nthe matter is certainly open to criticism, especially in the light of\nour truer knowledge of God. We read that at one time, even under the\nleadership of Ezra, one of the returned exiles, a large number of the\nwives from other nations were cruelly divorced and sent away weeping\nto their own people. All this helped to give the Jews a wrong and\nunreasonable pride in their own race and a silly and unkind contempt\nfor other races.\n\n=The hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans.=--About the time of\nNehemiah there was also started a bitter feud between the Jews and the\nSamaritans. There had always been a good deal of jealousy between the\npeople of Judah in the South, and the Hebrews of the central and\nnorthern parts of Canaan. Samaria was the capital of the northern\nkingdom, which had split off from the kingdom of David and Solomon.\nThis old jealousy flamed up again after Nehemiah. The Samaritans had\nintermarried with their heathen neighbors, perhaps more than the Jews\nin Judaea. So the Jews claimed that the Samaritans had no right to call\nthemselves true Hebrews.\n\nThe Samaritans, on the other hand, claimed that they were true\nchildren of Abraham, and they built a temple of their own on Mount\nGerizim as a rival to the temple of Jerusalem. This jealousy and hate\ngrew more and more bitter until, in the time of Jesus, the Jews looked\nupon Samaritans with even more contempt than any Gentiles.\n\n=The growing prejudice against the Jews among other peoples.=--Those\nwho call names generally hear themselves taunted and ridiculed in\nturn. The very fact that the Jews would not work on the Sabbath marked\nthem as peculiar and helped to make them unpopular. Their laws about\nfoods, clean and unclean, were also different from those of other\nnations. For example, they would not eat pork. Moreover, as time went\non many of the Jews in Babylon and in other foreign lands grew\nprosperous. They were industrious and they had brains and a special\ngift for trade. Before long they had money to lend, and they often\ndemanded unjust rates of interest. This too made them unpopular. So\nthe more proudly and contemptuously they held aloof from Babylonians,\nPersians, Egyptians, and all other foreigners the more frequently they\nheard themselves called \"Jewish dogs\" and other hard names.\n\n\nTHE COMING OF THE GREEKS\n\nThis racial pride on the part of the Jews was still more increased by\nthe coming of another unusually proud people, the Greeks. In the year\nB.C. 333, Alexander the Great defeated the army of the king of Persia\nand soon extended his rule over all western Asia, including Judaea.\nVery soon Greeks were everywhere to be seen, in all the cities of\nPalestine. In order to protect the country from the desert robbers\nwho, as we have seen, had been making their raids through all the\ncenturies, a chain of Greek cities was built to the east of the Jordan\nand thousands of Greek settlers were brought there to live. The ruins\nof many beautiful Greek temples and theaters may still be seen in that\ncountry. Samaria was also rebuilt as a Greek city, the capital of the\nprovince. So there were Greeks on all sides of Jerusalem and throngs\nof Greek merchants and travelers were to be seen on the streets of\nevery Jewish city and village.\n\nThe Greeks in some ways had as much to be proud of as a people as the\nJews. Their sculptors had carved the most beautiful marbles in the\nworld. Their poets had composed the most beautiful poems. Their\nphilosophers were wiser than those of any other nation. Moreover, many\nof these Greeks who came into Palestine and other countries of Asia\nwere filled with a truly missionary spirit. It is said that Alexander\nthe Great was inspired by the thought that he was helping to spread\nthe art and wisdom and culture of the Greeks throughout the world.\n\n=The struggle between Judaism and Hellenism.=--This meant that the old\nreligion of Jehovah was in danger of being forgotten not only in\nBabylonia and other lands but even in Judaea and Jerusalem. Many Jews\nquite fell in love with the new art and learning of the Greeks. They\nlearned the Greek language, gave their children Greek names, such as\n\"Jason,\" for example, instead of \"Joshua.\" A gymnasium was built in\nJerusalem where Jewish lads learned to exercise and play games after\nthe Greek style. Many of them tried to hide the fact that they were\nJews, and too often they ceased to worship Jehovah, the God of their\nfathers, and offered sacrifices to Zeus and other Greek divinities.\n\n=The beginnings of the Pharisees.=--Other Jews fought against all\nthese new ideas and fashions. They became more strict than ever in\ntheir observance of the peculiar customs and regulations of the Jewish\nlaw. It was at this time that the beginnings of the party of the\nPharisees came into existence, of which we read in the New Testament.\nThe word \"Pharisee\" means \"one who is kept apart, or separate\"; that\nis, one who holds aloof from the heathen and from heathen customs.\nThey were the men who \"when they come from the market place, eat not,\nexcept they bathe themselves.\" They might have touched some heathen\nperson in the street which they thought made them ceremonially\nunclean. In the earlier days the Pharisees were called \"Hasideans,\" or\n\"the pious.\"\n\nIt was right, of course, that these men should struggle to keep their\nreligion alive. The great religious truths of the prophets were worth\nmore to the world than all the art and wisdom of the Greeks. But the\nresult of the struggle was an even greater scorn on the part of the\nHebrews for all men who were not Jews.\n\n\nSTUDY TOPICS\n\n1. Read Esther 9. 5, 11-16. What kind of patriotism does this passage\nexpress?\n\n2. Compare the following laws in Deuteronomy: 10. 18-19 and 14. 21.\nCan you explain the inconsistency?\n\n3. What national characteristics do hatred and contempt of other\nnations lead to?\n\n4. What is the danger from continually hurling bad names at\nforeigners, such as \"Greasers,\" \"Chinks,\" and so on?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVI\n\nA BROAD-MINDED AND NOBLE PATRIOTISM\n\n\nIn spite of all their prejudice, thinking Jews could not help but see\nthat the Greeks, in spite of their heathen religion, had brought with\nthem many of the blessings of civilization. Many articles of everyday\ncomfort were introduced into Canaan for the first time by the Greeks,\nfor example, new varieties of food, such as pumpkins, vinegar,\nasparagus, and various kinds of cheese. From the Greeks also the Jews\nlearned to preserve fish by salting them. This made possible the\nsplendid fishing business by the Sea of Galilee. In the time of Jesus\nwe find this lake surrounded by flourishing towns. Most of the men in\nthese towns supported themselves and their families by fishing. The\nfish were salted and the salt fish sold in the inland towns. They were\neven exported to foreign countries. The Greeks probably also\nintroduced poultry and hens' eggs to the farmers and housewives of\nCanaan.\n\n=New articles of dress and furniture.=--These same newcomers brought\nwith them a greater variety of fabrics and garments, such as Cilician\ngoat's-hair cloth, out of which coarse cloaks and curtains, as well as\ntents, were made; also felt for hats and sandals. The Greeks also\nintroduced the custom of carrying handkerchiefs. Many new kinds of\nhousehold utensils came into Jewish homes as a result of the example\nof their Greek associates, for example, arm chairs, mirrors, table\ncloths, plates, and cups. Hemp and hempen cords and ropes came from\nthe Greeks. From this same source came the custom of placing food at\nmeals on dining tables, like ours, while the diners, unlike ourselves,\nlay on couches with their heads toward the table. It may also have\nbeen the Greeks--although possibly it was the Persians--who first\nbrought coined money into Canaan, so that in making each purchase it\nwas not necessary to weigh the silver or the gold.\n\nAll these useful and beautiful things helped to win over sensible\npeople among the Jews to look with favor on their new neighbors. And\nwhen Jewish travelers found themselves stopping at new and more\ncomfortable inns managed by Greek innkeepers, and went to bathe in the\npublic baths which were erected in the larger cities by the Greek\nauthorities, they were sure to spread the idea that even Jews might\nlearn something from the Greeks.\n\n\nBROAD-MINDED PATRIOTS AMONG THE JEWS\n\nFortunately there were some among the Jews who could appreciate the\ngood and beautiful things in Greek civilization without being disloyal\nto their own race and their own religion; and, on the other hand,\ncould be proud of the great teachings of the prophets without hating\nand despising men of other races. They had learned well the lesson of\nthat great prophet whom we call the Second Isaiah, that Jehovah chose\nIsrael, not as his special \"pet\" or favorite, but as his servant to\nteach all nations about the true God and his righteous rule. Such men\nrealized that the Greeks and Egyptians and other foreigners were\nJehovah's children like themselves, and that instead of despising them\nthey ought to make friends with them and try to teach them the\nreligion of Jehovah.\n\n=Jewish religious books written for Greeks.=--It was by men of this\nbroad spirit that a number of books were written for the sake of\nwinning Greeks to the Jewish religion. These books were written in the\nGreek language and explained to Greek readers the law of Moses and the\nteachings of the prophets. Among the most important of these books was\nthe translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek. This translation\nwas made, indeed, chiefly for the benefit of Jews living in Greek\ncountries who had forgotten the old Hebrew tongue. But the translators\nalso had in mind the great non-Jewish Greek world.\n\nAnd the new translation, sometimes called the Septuagint (that is, the\nbook of the seventy translators who are said to have worked on it),\nfound its way into the hands of many a Greek reader who learned from\nit for the first time something about the religion of Jehovah.\n\nThe author of the story of Jonah, in the Bible, was another Jew of\nthis broad spirit. He had traveled in Egypt. He had seen the vices and\nsins of the heathen. And he had tried to tell them of the just and\nmerciful laws of the one God of all the world, Jehovah. Many of his\nfellow Jews criticised him for this. \"Why do you have anything to do\nwith these Gentile dogs?\" they asked. It was in answer to this\nquestion that he wrote about Jonah, the prophet whom Jehovah had sent\nto preach to the wicked heathen city of Nineveh. He had tried to avoid\nobeying the command, but at last had gone; and when the Ninevites\nlistened to his preaching and repented and turned to Jehovah he was\nangry. And Jehovah said unto him, \"Should not I have regard for\nNineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand\npersons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left\nhand?\" (That is, six score thousand little children.)\n\nJonah in this story is a type of the Jewish people. As Jehovah sent\nJonah to preach to the Ninevites, so he would send the Jews to teach\nthe nations of his love. What a pity to be so narrow-minded, so\nblinded by pride of race, as to have no sympathy or good will for any\nother race of men! This is the lesson the author of the book meant to\nteach.\n\nProbably very few of the Jews who heard this man, or read his book,\nunderstood or appreciated him. But there were enough of them who cared\nfor him to preserve his book, so that it became a part of their sacred\nwritings; and perhaps more than any other book in the Old Testament it\nprepared the way for a broadening of the dreams and plans of Abraham\nand Moses and the prophets to include not only Jews but all\nmankind--that broadening which we call Christianity.\n\n\nSTUDY TOPICS\n\n1. Read Isaiah 19. 19-24.\n\n2. What do you think this writer would have thought of our American\nhabit of calling names at foreigners?\n\n3. What advice would these writers have given us, in regard to our\n\"Japanese\" problem?\n\n4. If you have time, look into the book of Jonah.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVII\n\nOUTDOOR TEACHERS AMONG THE JEWS[5]\n\n\nAll children among all races receive as they grow up some kind of an\neducation. Isaac learned from his father Abraham and from the other\nolder people about him how to set up a tent, how to milk a goat, how\nto recognize the tracks of bears and other wild beasts, and all the\nother bits of knowledge so necessary to wandering shepherds. Not till\nmany centuries after Abraham in Hebrew history were there any special\nschools apart from the everyday experiences of life, or any man whose\nspecial work was that of teaching. But in the centuries following the\ndestruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians and its gradual\nrestoration, the people came more and more to see the importance of\neducation. And in the course of these three or four centuries before\nthe coming of Christ there grew up two kinds of schools and two kinds\nof teachers, first, an _open air_ school where life itself was\nstudied, and then later, in the second place, an _indoor_ school,\nwhere the chief study was that of books.\n\n\nSCHOOLS IN THE OPEN AIR\n\nThese open-air schools were most often to be seen in the \"city gate.\"\nThe Jews meant by the \"gate\" of the city the broad open space in front\nof the actual opening in the city wall. It was like the public square\nin our modern towns.\n\n=Scenes in the \"Gate.\"=--Suppose we visit one of the \"gates.\" It is\nearly morning. Everything is noise and confusion. Here are merchants\npeddling their wheat, or dates, or honey, their wool or their flax.\nCustomers are haggling over prices. Each one is shouting with a\nshrill voice and with many gestures that the price asked is an\noutrage. Besides the merchants there are judges. Here sits one of the\ncity elders with a long white beard. Before him are two farmers\ndisputing over a boundary line--also witnesses and spectators.\n\nOut in the middle of the area children are playing. Every now and then\na mangy yellow dog noses his way through the crowd looking for scraps\nof food. And everywhere are the folks who came out just to see their\nneighbors and to hear the news.\n\nIn one corner of the open space by the \"gate\" we notice a dignified\nfigure, an old man with a circle of friends and listeners. He is\nwatching the varied scenes around him and occasionally talking with\nthose about him.\n\n\"Who is that old man?\" we ask.\n\n\"That is one of the wise men,\" we are told.\n\nThese \"wise men\" among the Hebrews studied human nature, and gave to\nyoung men and to any less-experienced people who cared to listen, the\nbenefit of their practical good sense. They loved to teach through\n\"proverbs,\" that is, short and witty sentences. A large number of the\n\"proverbs\" of these teachers are preserved in the Book of Proverbs in\nour Old Testament.\n\n\nTHE TEACHING OF THE WISE MEN\n\nOne of the most important keys to success in life is a knowledge of\npeople. This the wise men helped their students to obtain. Let us sit\nfor a while beside one of them and look through his eyes at the people\nwho pass by. Here comes young Mr. Know-it-all. He wears a very fine\ngarment, and walks with a swagger. His father and mother and all his\naunts and uncles have always told him that he is the most clever\nperson in the world. And, of course, he agrees with them. He will\nlisten to advice from nobody. The wise man watches him pass, then says\nto his hearers:\n\n =\"Seest thou a wise man in his own conceit?\n There is more hope of a fool than of him.\"=\n (=Proverbs 26. 12.=)\n\nThe wise man has a sense of humor. He loves to smile at the little\ninconsistencies of life. He has been listening to the talk between a\nmerchant and his customer. And this is his comment on it.\n\n =\"It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer:\n But when he is gone his way, then he boasteth.\"=\n (=Proverbs 20. 14.=)\n\nBut though he is so quick to laugh at human follies the wise man has a\ntender heart. He helps his hearers to sympathize with those who are\nanxious and discouraged. And he knows the value of friendly\nencouragement.\n\n =\"Heaviness in the heart of a man maketh it stoop;\n But a good word maketh it glad.\"=\n (=Proverbs 12. 25.=)\n\n=A practical advice of the wise men.=--With this knowledge of human\nnature these teachers were able to give much good counsel in matters\nof business. For example, there were tricksters in those days just as\nnow. One of their favorite tricks was to persuade some \"greenhorn\" to\nact as surety for a loan. \"Just shake hands with me before\nwitnesses,\" the smooth tongued one would say, \"and the banker will\nlend me money; there is a caravan of silks coming from Damascus which\nI can buy for a song. We will both be rich.\" So the poor fool would\nshake hands before witnesses, which was like our modern custom of\nsigning one's name on a note. The man would then take the money and\ndisappear, leaving his victim to repay the loan or be sold into\nslavery. \"Be on your guard against these sharpers,\" the wise men were\nconstantly saying.\n\n\nHELPING PEOPLE TO LIVE LOVINGLY TOGETHER\n\nThe best part of the teaching of the wise men had to do with even more\nimportant matters than how to keep from being cheated. They helped\npeople live together. They had many sensible things to say about good\nmanners. For example, Joshua the son of Sirach, a wise man whose\nsayings are found in the book of Ecclesiasticus in the Apocrypha,\ngives much wise counsel about table manners:\n\n =\"Consider thy neighbor's liking by thine own,\n And be discreet in every point.\n Eat as becometh a man, those things which are set before thee;\n And eat not greedily, lest thou be hated.\n Be first to leave off, for manner's sake,\n And be not insatiable, lest thou offend.\"=\n\nSurely courtesy at the table is one of the things which make life\nhappy and noble. Truly civilized people do not eat like pigs in a\ntrough.\n\nAs they looked out upon the lives of men what made the wise men most\nsorry was the hatred and bitterness which they so often saw between\nthose who should have been friends. One of their most frequent\nteachings was the need for the control of one's anger and for charity\nand forgiveness.\n\n =\"A fool uttereth all his anger,\n But a wise man keepeth it back.\"=\n (=Proverbs 29. 11.=)\n\n =\"He that covereth a transgression seeketh love:\n But he that harpeth on a matter separateth chief friends.\"=\n (=Proverbs 17. 9.=)\n\n=Their condemnation of tale-bearing.=--Since the wise men felt so\nstrongly on this point, it is not surprising that they kept their most\nscathing denunciations for tale-bearers and troublemakers. Too often\nthey saw men who were formerly dear friends passing by each other with\ndark looks. Some liar had been sowing his evil seed. If you have\nanything to say against a man, the wise men urged, say it to his face.\nDon't talk against him behind his back.\n\n =\"A froward man scattereth abroad strife:\n And a whisperer separateth chief friends.\"=\n (=Proverbs 16. 28.=)\n\n\nTHE RELIGIOUS TEACHING OF THE WISE MEN\n\nThere came a time, perhaps a century or two after Nehemiah, when the\nwise men were the chief moral and religious leaders of the Jewish\nnation. The people had lost faith in the prophets, for there were no\nmore prophets like Amos or Isaiah. And these practical teachers with\ntheir warm sympathy and kind hearts had many true words to speak about\nthe God of wisdom and of love. The book of Job in the Bible, one of\nthe greatest books of history, was written by one of these wise men.\nIt is a story of a man who found God although both his own misfortunes\nand also the false ideas of his friends had made him think that God\nwas his enemy. He found God at last because he was brave enough to\nthink for himself.\n\nSo these teachers gave their pupils the best kind of education. They\ntoo, like the prophets and all the leaders about whom we have studied,\nhelped to prepare their pupils for the life of loving brotherhood with\nGod as their common Father, which was the goal toward which all this\nhistory we have studied was slowly but surely moving.\n\n\nSTUDY TOPICS\n\n1. Browse through the book of Proverbs, especially chapters 10 and\nfollowing, looking for teachings on the following subjects; enter the\nreferences opposite (_a_), (_b_), etc., below.\n\n (_a_) Diligence in work.\n (_b_) Temperance in use of wine.\n (_c_) Honesty in business.\n (_d_) Compassion toward the poor.\n (_e_) Self-control in anger.\n\n2. Read Ecclesiastes 11, for a taste of another \"wisdom\" book.\n\n3. Find if you can a Bible with the Apocrypha between the Old and New\nTestaments, and read a chapter or two in Ecclesiasticus, or the wisdom\nof the Son of Sira.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[5] Part of these pages taken from the author's earlier book, The\nStory of Our Bible. Copyright, 1914, 1915, by Charles Scribner's Sons.\nUsed by permission.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVIII\n\nBOOK LEARNING AMONG THE JEWS\n\n\nIf we could have visited the home of some sincerely religious Jew\nabout the time when the law of Deuteronomy was adopted by King Josiah\nand the people we might have seen the beginning of a new kind of\neducation--the regular study of books, and especially of the Bible.\nThey had for their Bible at that time the law of Deuteronomy, which\nthey had accepted as God's will for all Jews. And if this was God's\nwill for them, it was plain that it must be taught to everybody,\nbeginning with the children.\n\n\nTEACHING THE LAW AT HOME\n\nLet us imagine ourselves, then, visiting the house of some good Jewish\nfriend in Jerusalem under Josiah. As we enter the door we notice\nletters roughly carved or painted on the wooden door. \"You ask what\nare those words,\" replies our host to our question. \"They are from our\nlaw. They are for the children to see, as they go in and out the door.\nThis is the way the inscription reads:\n\n =\"'Hear, O Israel: Jehovah thy God is one and thou shalt love\n Jehovah thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,\n and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.'=\n\n\"The priest wrote them for us and both I myself and the children have\nbeen learning to read them,\" says our friend. \"And every Sabbath we\nstudy them, and I teach the children to repeat after me as much of the\nrest of Jehovah's law as I can remember. Sometimes the children ask me\nquestions. They say, 'What mean these laws and these statutes which\nyou say Jehovah our God commanded?' Then I answer, 'We were Pharaoh's\nslaves in the land of Egypt. And Jehovah brought us up out of Egypt\n... to give us this land. And Jehovah commanded us to do all these\nstatutes, to fear Jehovah our God for our good.'\"\n\n=Religion through education.=--It is easy to understand that with this\ntraining in childhood it became more and more easy from this time on\nto persuade the Jewish people not to worship idols and to see why they\ngradually changed more and more rapidly into the most devout and\nearnest people in the world. The children were taught in their homes.\n\n\nTHE NEW KIND OF TEACHERS, THE SCRIBES\n\nAfter Josiah's time many additions were made to this law of Jehovah.\nAt first it consisted of only a part of our book of Deuteronomy. But\nthe learned priests and prophets, especially after the destruction of\nJerusalem, made a careful study of all the writings of preceding\ngenerations, and they found many collections of laws and histories of\nJehovah's dealings with his people which seemed to them inspired of\nJehovah and worthy to be reverenced and obeyed. They tried the\nexperiment of combining some of these with the law of Deuteronomy. So\nit came to pass that two or three centuries later the Jews had as\ntheir sacred book the whole of what is now the Pentateuch, or the\nfirst five books of the Bible.\n\n=The need of other teachers besides the father in the home.=--If this\nlarger Bible was to be carefully studied by every Jew from his\nchildhood up, there must be certain men who should give their lives to\nteaching it. So in time there came to be a class of teachers known as\n\"scribes.\" These men spent all their working hours reading this law of\nGod, making copies of it and teaching it to others. Some of these men\nwere truly great and good. For example, there was the gentle Hillel,\nwho lived about a century before Christ and who taught the spirit of\nthe Golden Rule, although in a form not so perfect as that of Jesus.\n\n =\"Do not to your neighbor what is unpleasant to yourself.\n This is the whole law. All else is exposition.\"=\n\nIt was a scribe like this who talked with Jesus about the \"greatest\ncommandment,\" and to whom Jesus said, \"Thou art not far from the\nKingdom of God.\"\n\n\nTHE SCHOOLS OF THE SCRIBES\n\nThese teachers conducted regular daily schools in the synagogues. More\nand more children were sent to them until in the time of Jesus all\nboys were supposed to go for at least a year or two. Girls were taught\nonly at home. People had not yet come to realize that the minds of\ngirls are as well worth educating as those of boys.\n\n=The methods of teaching.=--The boys sat on the floor in a circle\nbefore the teacher. They repeated after him the Jewish alphabet and\nlearned to recognize each letter. Their only textbooks were papyrus\nrolls on which were written parts of the law. They began with\nLeviticus and learned by heart as much of it as possible. We can\nimagine that the boys were glad when they finished with Leviticus and\nwent back to Genesis to the stories of Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph.\n\nThey also learned to write. Their copybooks were at first rough scraps\nof broken pottery on which with sharp nails they learned to scratch\nletters. Probably mischievous boys sometimes drew pictures instead of\npracticing the words assigned to them. After they could write fairly\nwell they were given wax tablets, or even a bit of papyrus, a quill\npen, and an ink horn. Papyrus was expensive and had to be used with\ncare.\n\n\nGOOD AND BAD RESULTS OF THE TEACHING OF THE SCRIBES\n\nSo much study of these books of law and history was bound to wield a\nmighty influence. Those thousands of boys studying laws which for\ntheir time were the most just and humane in the world, could not but\nlearn something about the meaning of justice and mercy. Better still,\nthe wonderful stories in Genesis and Exodus left their sure impress on\nthe hearts of those who studied. The boys for the most part reverenced\ntheir teachers, and many of them came to love their Book, the law. It\nwas a boy, so taught, who when he was older, wrote that Psalm:\n\n =\"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet\n And light unto my path.=\n * * * * * * * * *\n =Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?\n By taking heed thereto, according to thy word.\"=\n\n=The danger of formality.=--The danger in this kind of education is\nthat of blindness to the voice of God to be heard in everyday\nexperience or in our own hearts as well as in the written Scripture.\nThe result of this blindness is that goodness and religion are thought\nof as merely the keeping of the written law. It was such blind scribes\nwhom Jesus denounced for giving tithes, or a tenth part of the mint\nand anise and cummin, that is, of even the most insignificant of their\ngarden herbs and forgetting mercy and justice and faith; in other\nwords, keeping the letter of the written law but not living out the\nspirit of it. It is not enough, Jesus taught, just to obey what is\nwritten. To do only that is to be an unprofitable servant. This bad\nkind of religion grew up in those schools where only books were\nstudied, not the real everyday experience of living people.\n\n\nJESUS WAS A WISE MAN RATHER THAN A SCRIBE\n\nWhen Jesus came he was a teacher more like those more ancient wise men\nof the city gates. Like them he taught his listeners out of doors by\nthe shores of the lake or on the hillside as well as in the\nsynagogues. He reverenced the Bible, the Law and the Prophets, as\nGod's word, but he listened for that word also in the sights and\nsounds of the streets and country lanes. He heard his Father's voice\nas he listened to house wives chatting with their neighbors, or to\nvineyard keepers hiring harvest hands.\n\n \"When He walked the fields he drew\n From the flowers and birds and dew\n Parables of God.\n For within his heart of love\n All the soul of man did move--\n God had his abode.\"\n\n\nSTUDY TOPICS\n\n1. Look up in the Bible dictionary under \"Scribes\" and \"Rabbi.\"\n\n2. What impressions of the scribes do you get from Matthew 7. 28-29,\nMatthew 15. 1-9, and Mark 12. 28-34?\n\n3. Read Luke 1. 5-6; 2. 25-36. Where and how do you think these good\nmen and women, among whom Jesus was born, got their training?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIX\n\nNEW OPPRESSORS AND NEW WARS FOR FREEDOM\n\n\nAfter the death of Alexander the Great his empire was broken into\nfragments ruled by those of his generals who were able to snatch these\nsmaller kingdoms for themselves. One of them named Ptolemy seized\nEgypt. His descendants, known as the Ptolemies, reigned there for\ncenturies. Another, named Seleucus, gained control of the greater part\nof the old Persian empire. He built the city of Antioch, in northern\nSyria, naming it after his father Antiochus. His descendants, on the\nthrone of the new kingdom, are known in history as the Seleucids.\n\n\nTHE JEWS UNDER GREEK RULERS\n\nCanaan at first became part of the kingdom of the Ptolemies, and this\ncontinued for about a century. During this period the Jews seemed to\nhave been treated with a fair degree of kindness and justice. At least\nthey were left most of the time in peace. But about B.C. 200, Canaan\nwas taken from the Ptolemies by the Seleucids, and this turned out to\nbe for the Jewish people an unhappy change. In the year 175 B.C.,\nthere came to the throne in Antioch a young prince named Antiochus\nEpiphanes who, like Alexander the Great, thought of himself as a kind\nof missionary for Greek art and civilization. He became more and more\nangry because so many of the Jews refused to worship Greek gods. About\nB.C. 170, he issued a decree that all persons in his dominion must\noffer sacrifices to Zeus. When the Jews refused they were put to\ndeath.\n\n=New persecutions.=--A terrible persecution was thus begun. A Greek\nofficer would come into a Jewish town or village, set up an altar to\nZeus, and summon all the people to join in the sacrifice of worship.\nAs many as possible of those who refused were hunted down and killed.\nAll copies of the Jewish law that could be found were burned. Every\nmonth a search was made throughout Judaea to see whether any Jew still\nhad copies of the Scriptures. A heathen altar was set up in the temple\nat Jerusalem and swine were sacrificed upon it. To the Jews, who were\ntaught to regard swine's flesh as unclean and unholy, nothing could\nhave seemed more horrible.\n\nOf course there were some traitors and renegades. But the great\nmajority of the Jewish people were nobly true to the faith of their\nfathers. Hundreds and thousands, young and old, allowed themselves to\nbe tortured and slain rather than take part in a heathen sacrifice.\nMany even of those who had fallen in with some of the evil customs of\nthe Greeks now refused to be known as anything else than faithful\nJews, even though it might cost them their lives.\n\n\nTHE MACCABEAN REVOLTS AND VICTORIES\n\nIn the midst of this cruel persecution a rebellion flamed up under the\nleadership of a certain brave old priest named Mattathias. After his\ndeath his sons took up the cause. The greatest of them was Judas, who\nwas surnamed Maccabeus, which some have thought meant the Hammerer.\nThe whole family is known as the Maccabees. Under the skillful\ncommand of Judas victory after victory was won by his little band of\nJewish warriors fighting against great armies of Greek hired soldiers.\nThe city of Jerusalem was cleared of the detested oppressors, all\nexcept a garrison that maintained itself in the citadel. The temple\nwas purified and rededicated to Jehovah.\n\nAfter some twenty years the soldiers from Antioch were driven out\naltogether and the little Jewish kingdom under Simon, a brother of\nJudas, was recognized as independent. For nearly a century the\ndescendants of the Maccabees reigned in Jerusalem. Most of them turned\nout to be greedy and selfish men unworthy of Judas and Simon. Yet\nduring this period the Jews tasted once again something of the joys of\nfreedom.\n\n\nTHE VICTORIES OF ROME\n\nDuring the last two centuries before Christ a new empire had been\ngrowing up in the west, that of Rome. In the year B.C. 63, two princes\nof the Maccabean line fell into a quarrel as to which one should be\nking. There was a civil war, which was ended by the Roman general\nPompey, who annexed the country as a province of the Roman Empire.\nThis was the end of the independence of the Jewish nation.\n\n=The Herods.=--Sometimes Roman provinces were ruled by Roman\ngovernors, and at other times they were left to native kings who were\nallowed to do pretty much as they pleased so long as they paid tribute\nto Rome. There was a certain Edomite, or Idumean, as the name was\npronounced by the Greeks and Romans, who partly by flattery and partly\nby real ability persuaded Romans to make him king over the whole land\nof Palestine.\n\nThis man is known in the history books as Herod the Great, although\nhe was sadly lacking in true greatness, being fearfully cruel and\nabsolutely selfish. He built many beautiful palaces in various Jewish\ncities and also rebuilt very beautifully the temple at Jerusalem. He\nhimself had no interest in religion, but he hoped in this way to win\nback with the Jews some of the popularity which he had lost through\nhis many crimes. It was during his reign that Jesus was born. When\nHerod died the land was divided among his sons. When Jesus began his\npublic career as a teacher one of these sons, Herod Antipas, was the\nruler of the northern part of the country, that is Galilee. Judaea, in\nthe south, and Samaria between Galilee and Judaea, were directly under\nRoman rule with a Roman governor or procurator.\n\n=The Sanhedrin.=--To a certain extent even after the Roman conquest\nthe Jews were permitted to govern themselves. There was in Jerusalem a\ncouncil, or court, of leading priests and rabbis, called the\nSanhedrin. There were in it seventy-one members. When any member died\nthe others elected some one to fill the vacancy. All Jews everywhere\nwere supposed to be under the authority of the Sanhedrin. But except\nin purely religious matters it had little power outside of Judaea. In\nJudaea, however, this court, or council, decided all questions except\nthose which the Roman procurator reserved for himself. They were not\nallowed to condemn a criminal to death. So when the Sanhedrin voted to\nput Jesus out of the way it was necessary to take him before Pilate\nthe Roman procurator and persuade Pilate to ratify the sentence of\ndeath. How galling it was to a proud nation like the Jews to be\nobliged to go to a hated enemy for permission to carry out their\ndecrees we can well imagine; and we shall learn more of it in the next\nchapter.\n\n\nSTUDY TOPICS\n\n1. Look up in the Bible dictionary, Maccabees and Herod.\n\n2. Read Hebrews 11. 32-40. Verses 33-38 are probably in large part a\ndescription of the heroic martyrs before the Maccabees.\n\n3. Was the Maccabean rule a failure because it did not last?\n\n4. How did these rulers contribute to the great ends which Jews had\nalways dreamed of.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXX\n\nTHE DISCONTENT OF THE JEWS UNDER ROMAN RULE\n\n\nIn spite of the fact that the Jews still had some power of\nself-government through the Sanhedrin, the great mass of the people\nhated the Romans with an almost inconceivable fury. The world had\nnever before seen such cruel rulers. The Assyrians had been bad, but\nthe Romans were worse. Think of that form of punishment which they\ninflicted carelessly every day even for minor crimes--crucifixion! The\npoor victim was nailed by the hands and feet to a pole and left to\nhang in agony till death mercifully ended it all. Think of the\ngladiatorial combats in the city of Rome and in other Roman cities,\nwhere every day for centuries slaves or condemned criminals fought\neach other with swords to the death, or fought with wild beasts while\nthe gloating multitudes looked on in rapture.\n\nMoreover, not only were the Romans very cruel, they had no manners.\nThey were haughty in their bearing and took pains to let conquered\npeople know how thoroughly they were despised.\n\n=Roman cruelty in Palestine.=--All these qualities were manifested\nalmost at their worst by the Roman rulers in Judaea and Galilee. Jesus\nspeaks of certain Galilaeans, \"whose blood Pilate mingled with their\nsacrifices.\" We know nothing of this incident except what Jesus tells.\nEvidently, these Galilaeans had come as pilgrims to Jerusalem at the\ntime of one of the annual feasts. Possibly they did not salute with\nsufficient respect the Roman eagles as they passed some squad of Roman\nsoldiers in the street. At any rate, they were taken before Pilate and\nruthlessly condemned to the slaughter.\n\n=Roman taxes and the Publicans.=--Naturally, the thought of paying\ntaxes to such masters was almost unbearable. Yet each adult Jewish man\nand woman was required to pay a personal or poll tax besides taxes on\nhis property or income. To make matters worse, the Romans were\naccustomed to hire _Jews_ to collect these taxes, giving these men the\nright to extort whatever they could, provided the required tribute was\npaid to Rome. Of course all true Jews hated and despised these Jewish\ntax-gatherers or publicans even more than they hated and despised the\nRomans themselves.\n\n\nVARIOUS PARTIES AMONG THE JEWS\n\nThere were some respectable Jews, indeed, as well as these\ntax-collectors, who favored the Romans. There were for example the\nSadducees, a group of wealthy and aristocratic men, mostly priests,\nwho formed a sort of political party called by this name. Many of them\nwere members of the Sanhedrin. They were prosperous, and so long as\ntheir power was not taken away they sided with the Romans. It was\nnothing to them that the great mass of their poor fellow countrymen\nwere being brutally and wickedly robbed and ill-treated.\n\n=The Pharisees.=--We have already spoken of the Pharisees as being\n\"Separatists,\" that is, the people who were most opposed to any\ncontact with heathen foreigners. Strange to say, most of the Pharisees\nwere opposed to any violent rebellion against the Romans. They\nbelieved that God himself would come to the aid of his people. Many\nbooks of the class called apocalypses were written during this period\nof the history in which the writers tried to comfort their readers by\nprophesying that the Lord would soon descend from heaven with armies\nof angels or would send his Messiah to drive out the Romans and set up\nhis own kingdom. The word \"Messiah\" (in Greek, \"Christ\") means\n_anointed one_.\n\nThe book of Daniel in the Old Testament is one of the books of this\nperiod. Many similar books were written which were not included in the\ncanon of the Scriptures. All of them were written in rather mysterious\nlanguage--with references to trumpets, vials, seals, beasts with many\nheads and many horns, and so on. This was to keep their heathen rulers\nfrom understanding the real meaning. It would not have been safe\nopenly to predict that in a few years God was going to send all Romans\nto eternal punishment.\n\n=The Zealots.=--There were still others among the Jews at this time\nwho were not willing to wait for Jehovah to come down from heaven.\nThey wanted to start a revolution right away. One such man, Judas of\nGamala, led a revolt when Jesus was about ten years old in which many\nGalilaeans joined. It was put down by the Romans with their usual\ncruelty. Very likely the fathers of some of Jesus' boyhood friends in\nNazareth of Galilee were crucified as the punishment for taking part\nin this revolt. Those who sympathized with Judas continued to plot in\nsecret against the hated Roman oppressors. They were called Zealots.\nOne of them became a member of Jesus' band of twelve apostles.\n\n\nSMOLDERING HATE AMONG THE PEOPLE\n\nWhether they were actual plotters against Rome, like the Zealots, or\nwhether they gave their strength to eager prayer to Jehovah for\ndeliverance, the great mass of the common people among the Jews in the\ntime of Christ were burning with a fierce patriotism and with a hatred\nagainst their oppressors such as we can scarcely imagine. The century\nof freedom under the Maccabees had made them all the more impatient of\ntyranny--and then to find themselves under such unspeakable tyrants as\nHerod and Pilate!--this was almost unendurable.\n\nThe children drank in this spirit with their mothers' milk. Fathers\nand mothers had constantly to warn their boys and girls not to show\ntheir feelings toward Roman officers and soldiers lest some dreadful\npunishment should befall them. So it went on from year to year,\ngrowing constantly worse instead of better. The whole land was like a\nheap of smoldering leaves. Sooner or later there would be a sudden\nflare of open flame.\n\n\nSTUDY TOPICS\n\n1. Look up in the Bible dictionary \"Publicans,\" \"Zealots,\" and\n\"Sadducees.\"\n\n2. How do you explain the success of the Romans in tyrannizing the\nproud Jews for so many years? Consider the part played by the\nSadducees.\n\n3. Read Matthew 3. 1-2. Why did John's message arouse such interest\nand enthusiasm?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXI\n\nJEWISH HOPES MADE GREATER BY JESUS\n\n\nThis history of the common people of Israel began with certain vague\nhopes of a happier and nobler way of living for the descendants of\nAbraham. As the centuries passed these hopes were only very partially\nrealized. But what was more important the Jews came more and more\nclearly to understand the meaning of their own hopes. Their great\nteachers helped them to know what they really wanted or ought to want\nif they would be happy. Moses taught them the first lessons of justice\nas the foundation of happiness. The great prophets helped them to see\nthat neither happiness nor justice was possible except as they knew\nand worshiped the true God--not a God of greed and anger to be bribed\nwith sacrifices, but the God of justice and love. A few of the\nprophets also began to see that such hopes as theirs could not be for\nJews alone but must include all mankind.\n\n\nTHE FULLNESS OF THE TIMES\n\nThe Jews under their Roman masters had come to a time, as we saw in\nthe preceding chapter, when they were wildly expecting an immediate\nfulfillment of these hopes. The short taste of freedom and happiness\nwhich they had enjoyed under Judas and Simon Maccabeus, followed by a\ntyranny more cruel and distasteful than any which their ancestors had\nknown, made them almost mad with the desire for some kind of a\nSaviour. And it seemed to them that he must come soon.\n\n=The chance for a world-Saviour.=--All over the world just at this\ntime there were strange hopes and longings in men's hearts. The Romans\nhad robbed many other nations besides the Jews of their independence.\nThese people had no real nation of their own any longer to live\nfor--and they hated Rome. What was there to make life worth living\nunless some Redeemer should come from God?\n\nMoreover, it was possible now to think of such a Saviour as a\nworld-Saviour. In the earlier centuries men hardly knew that there was\na world outside their own tribe and a few of their neighbors. There\nwere no maps. Only a few could travel, and see for themselves how\ngreat a world there really was--and how many nations there were--made\nup of men like themselves. The common people of Asia scarcely knew\nthat there was a Europe, and the enormous continent of Africa, except\nfor Egypt, did not exist for them. As for what is now called the New\nWorld, North and South America, no one knew of its existence.\n\n=Preparations for Christianity.=--But the Romans built good roads all\nover the great countries which bordered on the Mediterranean Sea, and\nmany were the travelers who went to and fro upon them. They\nestablished one government for all this Mediterranean world. One\nlanguage came to be understood everywhere--not Latin, the language of\nthe Romans themselves, but Greek. Beyond the boundaries of the empire\nthere were, of course, vast territories. But it was possible now for\neven the common people to realize that their own village or city or\ntribe was only a small part of one great world. And for the first time\nin history there was a chance for some one to take the old Jewish hope\nof a better and happier Jewish people and change it into a world-hope\nof a better and happier human race, and to gather a few men and women\ntogether and start them working for it.\n\n\nTHE COMING OF JESUS\n\nIn the wonderful providence of God there was born in a manger-cradle\njust at this moment in history the Baby who was destined to accomplish\nthis miracle; to broaden out to their widest and noblest meanings\nthese hopes which had been handed down from one generation of Jews to\nanother. The story of the life of Jesus will be given in detail in\nother courses in this series. Here, in a nutshell, is what Jesus did:\nhe helped men to believe in a God who loved all men as his children,\nwhether rich or poor, learned or ignorant, Jews or Gentiles or\nSamaritans, even the bad as well as the good; for if they were bad,\nthey needed his love to help them to be good. Jesus not only taught\nthis idea of God through his spoken words; he helped men, through his\ndeeds, to understand it. He _lived_ that way, as the Son of such a\nGod. He healed the sick. He fed the hungry. He ate and drank with\noutcasts. He was everybody's friend.\n\n=The inevitable conflict and cross.=--Of course Jesus was not able to\nlive that kind of life very long in our kind of world. Very soon he\ncame into conflict with the various kinds of men who enjoyed special\nprivileges of wealth or learning or honor and were not at all willing\nto share these things in a brotherly way; with the Pharisees, who were\nconsidered especially holy and did not want to be brothers to common\nmen, the \"people of the land\"; with the rich who did not want to be\nbrothers to the poor; with priests who did not want to be brothers to\nwounded men lying by the side of the Jericho road; with Romans who\nwere afraid the Jews might think brotherhood meant liberty. So after\nthree short years of preaching and healing Jesus was nailed to the\ncross, praying even as the nails were driven into his hands, \"Father,\nforgive them, for they know not what they do.\"\n\n=Suppose the Jews had believed in Jesus.=--How different the outcome\nof their history would then have been! Instead of a bloody and\nhopeless revolt against the Romans, they might have found a way to\nlive at peace with them, receiving from them a more just and humane\ngovernment; Isaiah, centuries before, showed his people how to get\nalong under the rule of Assyrians. Or, if the Romans had goaded the\npeople to rebel, they might have fought and died gloriously, not\nmerely for their own freedom but in the cause of all the suffering\nmasses in all lands. Thus the whole course of history might have been\nchanged. The four years' war which did break out in A.D. 66, about\nthirty-six years after Jesus' death, was not that kind of a war. In\nthe course of these four years different factions among the Jews\nfought each other almost as fiercely as they fought the Romans. The\nJews themselves were selfish in their hopes. They were not inspired\nand strengthened by Jesus' vision of brotherhood. In A.D. 70 the\nRomans captured the city of Jerusalem and burned the temple. It was\nnever rebuilt. From that day to this the Jews have been a people\nwithout a native land.\n\n\nCARRYING OUT THE IDEAS OF JESUS\n\nThere was, however, after Jesus' death and resurrection, a splendid\ncompany of disciples whose lives had been transformed by their\nacceptance of Jesus as Saviour and Lord, and who were eager to go on\ncarrying out Jesus' plans. None of them thoroughly understood these\nplans. Indeed, we are only beginning to understand them to-day. But\nvery soon, within a few years after Jesus' death, the wisest of the\nearly apostles, such men as Peter, Barnabas, and Paul, came to see\nthat to carry out Jesus' wishes there needed to be a universal church\nin which Jews and Gentiles, men of all races, would be included.\nWithin a half century branches of this new world-church had been\nstarted in every important city in the Roman empire. At first their\nmeetings were held in synagogues of the Jews of the Dispersion; and it\nis a pity that all the Jews could not have perceived that these\ndisciples of Jesus were carrying out the hopes of their own prophets,\nthat this Christianity was simply Judaism fulfilled. But many, of\ncourse, wanted to keep their religion and their God to themselves as\nJews. So there sprang up other buildings everywhere which came to be\nknown as Christian churches rather than Jewish synagogues.\n\n=Our task to-day.=--In these modern times we are still trying to\nunderstand what Jesus wanted and to bring it to pass in reality. We\nare beginning to see that if all men are indeed sacred to our heavenly\nFather, then under the leadership of our everliving Christ, a fight is\nin store for us on behalf of all the millions of our brothers who are\nblinded by selfishness, haggard from want, embittered by injustice,\nstunted in soul and mind by ignorance, or tortured by all the agonies\nof war. If there is to be a better world for any of us, it must be a\nbetter world for all of us. It must be \"everybody's world.\"\n\n\nSTUDY TOPICS\n\n1. Look up in the Bible dictionary, for further light on the\nbackground of Jesus' life, Galilee, Nazareth, Capernaum.\n\n2. Read Matthew 4. 17. Explain why the message of Jesus, like that of\nJohn, awakened such a quick response among the people.\n\n3. What did Jesus think of the rule of Rome? Read Matthew 20. 25-27,\nand Luke 13. 31, 32.\n\n4. In contrast with the Zealots, what was Jesus' plan for winning\nfreedom and happiness, instead of the oppression and misery of Roman\nrule? Read John 18. 33-38.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXII\n\nA THOUSAND YEARS OF A NATION'S QUEST\n\n\nIn this course of study we have been tracing the progress of a great\nenterprise. A race of people set out in the days of Abraham to seek\nthe best in life. Did they win or lose, succeed or fail? What did they\nachieve, during a thousand years of striving?\n\n\nSUMMARY OF RESULTS\n\nLooking back over the whole period which we have studied, there are\nfour short epochs which stand out in bright contrast to long stretches\nof darkness as times when the common people had a chance to enjoy some\nof the good things of life, or at least had reason to hope that they\nmight some time gain them for themselves or their children. These were\nthe times of David, of Josiah, of Nehemiah, and of Simon the Maccabee.\nThese four men were all able and just leaders. They were all inspired,\nto a greater or less extent, by the ideals of Abraham, Moses, and the\ngreat reformer-prophets.\n\n=The long centuries of failure.=--The lives of all four of these men\ntogether, however, do not cover much more than a century. During the\nrest of the time, the common people were ground down under oppressors,\neither of their own race or foreign conquerors. Generation after\ngeneration of fathers and mothers patiently toiled and struggled and\nsuffered, in the hope that they might climb just a little higher\ntoward the sunlight of health and comfort and the higher blessings of\nlife. Most of them struggled in vain. It is true that a few of the\nmore fortunate, in each generation, saw some little advance over\nearlier generations in the good things of civilization. Such men as\nNicodemus and Zacchaeus, in the time of Jesus, lived in better houses,\nwore more comfortable clothes, and ate better food than did King David\nhimself in an earlier, ruder age. But the common people of Jesus' day\nwere not so well off as even in the days of Abraham. For as wandering\nshepherds they were free. Life might be a bitter struggle against wild\nbeasts and drought and famine. But no haughty masters looked down on\nthem with contempt, or robbed them of their last farthing in unjust\ntaxation. Shall we say, then, that as a whole, the great enterprise\nwas a failure?\n\n\nTHE GREAT ACHIEVEMENT--A TRUE RELIGION\n\nNo, the great quest was not a failure, even though it was so far from\na complete success. Out of the long years of struggle and prayer had\ncome a new religion, not, indeed, understood by many but partly\ngrasped at least by some, and written down in books so that it could\nnever be wholly lost. This was a religion of the brotherhood of man\nand of a universal Father-God. The four eras of their history when the\ncommon people had been happy were eras when the principles of this\nreligion had partly prevailed. And these eras still shine out for us\nas examples of what that kind of religion means in the life of a\npeople. And the lives and words of the great prophets, and, greatest\nof all, the life of Jesus Christ, are a priceless legacy to us, who\nare still continuing the quest which Abraham began.\n\n=The truth which has been revealed to us.=--All men, everywhere, who\nare longing and toiling for a better chance for life and happiness\nand for knowledge and beauty and love for themselves and for their\nchildren, may now know that they are not without a mighty helper.\nThere is One who revealed himself, in the history of the people of\nIsrael and uniquely in Jesus Christ his Son, who still speaks in the\nname of all the hungry and thirsty and ragged and sick:\n\n =\"I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty,\n and ye gave me no drink: ... Inasmuch as ye did it not unto\n one of these least, ye did it not unto me.\"=\n\n\nSTUDY TOPICS\n\n1. Of the four short eras of righteousness, in the history of the\nHebrews, in which does it seem to you that the common people made the\ngreatest gains?\n\n2. What were some of the improvements in civilization which rich or\nwell-to-do people, in the later centuries of this history, enjoyed, as\ncompared with the earlier centuries? Study Chapters I and II, VI, VII,\nand VIII, and XXII.\n\n3. Compare the earliest religion of the Hebrews with the religion of\nthe prophets and Jesus. Mention four great discoveries in regard to\nthe character of God.\n\n\n\n\nREVIEW AND TEST QUESTIONS\n\n\n1. Describe the daily life of the earliest ancestors of the Hebrews.\n\n2. What valuable characteristic of these people is reflected in the\nstory of Joseph?\n\n3. What were some of the evils of Babylonian life?\n\n4. What kind of life did Abraham admire judging from the story of Lot?\n\n5. What was the name of the Pharaoh who oppressed the Hebrews?\n\n6. Describe the slavery which the Hebrews were compelled to endure.\nWhat did they have to do?\n\n7. How did Moses succeed in delivering his countrymen?\n\n8. What was the effect of this deliverance on the life and religion of\nthe Hebrews in after years?\n\n9. Why was it comparatively easy for the Hebrews to get a foothold in\nCanaan about B.C. 1200?\n\n10. To what extent was the settlement in Canaan peaceful and to what\nextent was it by conquest?\n\n11. What lessons in civilization did the Hebrews learn in Canaan?\n\n12. What moral dangers did they have to fight against there?\n\n13. Why were the Hebrews in the first years after the settlement so\noften beaten by their enemies?\n\n14. What was Deborah's most important contribution to the history of\nher people?\n\n15. Why did it seem necessary for the Hebrews to have a king?\n\n16. Why were some of the wisest of the Hebrews opposed to the idea of\na king?\n\n17. How did David make the lives of the common people under his rule\nmore prosperous and happy?\n\n18. Why was Solomon unpopular?\n\n19. Was the disruption of the kingdom of Solomon a mistake, or was it\na blessing?\n\n20. In what way did most of the kings who followed David make\nthemselves a curse to their subjects?\n\n21. Explain why the Rechabites, Elijah, and others hated Canaanite\ncivilization and wanted the people to go back to the old nomadic\ndesert ways.\n\n22. Describe the burnt-offerings of ancient Hebrew religion. What was\nthe difference between ordinary sacrifices and special \"whole\nburnt-offerings\"?\n\n23. Describe the life of the poor people of Israel in the time of\nJeroboam II and the prophet Amos.\n\n24. How did Amos criticize the religion of burnt-offerings?\n\n25. What false ideas of God did Hosea combat?\n\n26. How did Hosea come to think of God as loving and merciful?\n\n27. How were superstitious ideas about God used by greedy priests and\nfortune-tellers in Micah's day to extort money from the people?\n\n28. What did Micah say were the essential things in religion?\n\n29. Why did the Jews in Isaiah's time seek for alliances with foreign\ncountries?\n\n30. How were these alliances connected with the worship of foreign\ngods?\n\n31. What were some of the sayings of Isaiah in which he taught the\nlesson of faith in the one true God?\n\n32. What plan did Isaiah devise to educate disciples in his religious\nteachings?\n\n33. What was the historical connection between the study circles of\nIsaiah and the law-book of Deuteronomy?\n\n34. To what extent did the law-book of Deuteronomy lead to the\npractice of the teachings of the prophets?\n\n35. How did this law compromise in the matter of burnt-offerings and\nother sacrifices?\n\n36. What did the prophet Jeremiah think of the law-book of\nDeuteronomy? Did he favor it or condemn it? Explain.\n\n37. Describe the life of the exiles in Babylon.\n\n38. How did they keep alive their faith in Jehovah?\n\n39. Where else besides Babylonia were large numbers of Hebrew exiles\nto be found?\n\n40. With what hopes did the Jews comfort themselves after the\ndestruction of Jerusalem?\n\n41. In what two ways did Nehemiah help the Jews in Jerusalem to a\nhappier life?\n\n42. Tell the story of the growing use of prayer and hymn books in the\nreligious worship of the Jews.\n\n43. Why did many of the Jews become more narrowly prejudiced against\nforeigners after the destruction of Jerusalem?\n\n44. What influences tended to make some of the Jews in this period\nmore broad-minded and friendly toward foreigners?\n\n45. Mention some writings from this period which helped the cause of\nthe broader patriotism.\n\n46. What two kinds of special schools and teachers grew up among the\nJews?\n\n47. Describe the daily scenes in the group of listeners around one of\nthe old wise men.\n\n48. What were some weaknesses and faults in the education of the\nscribes?\n\n49. What contributions did the Greeks bring to the civilization of the\nJews in Canaan?\n\n50. Why were the Jews specially discontented under the rule of the\nRomans?\n\n51. In what four periods of their history were the Jews happiest?\n\n52. How did Jesus fulfill and broaden out the national hopes of the\nJews?\n\n\nA SHORT LIST OF BOOKS THROWING LIGHT ON HEBREW LIFE AND TIMES\n\nKent and Bailey: _History of the Hebrew Commonwealth_.\n\nGeorge A. Barton: _Archaeology and the Bible_.\n\nCharles Reynolds Brown: _The Story Books of the Early Hebrews_.\n\nHarold B. Hunting: _The Story of Our Bible_.\n\nCrosby: _Geography of Bible Lands_.\n\n_Hastings' One Volume Bible Dictionary_.\n\n\n\n * * * * *\n\n+--------------------------------------------------------------+\n| Typographical errors corrected in text: |\n| |\n| Page 14: wondering replaced with wandering |\n| Page 38: record replaced with records |\n| Page 155: 'life itself itself was' replaced with |\n| 'life itself was' |\n| |\n+--------------------------------------------------------------+\n\n * * * * *","title":"Hebrew Life and Times","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":47699}