(or group of editors), who finally combined the four source-materials, as Tatian combined the four gospels, is called the redactor, and is represented in the Pentateuchal alphabet by the letter R. He took for a framework the Priestly Narrative, with its orderly succession of institutional origins, inserted into it sometimes J and sometimes E, where the various songs, laws and stories seemed to belong, and added D. Thus the four strands, J, E, P and D, were woven together to make the Pentateuch.

V

SONGS AND STORIES

ABOU

I

BOUT the year 1000, there appeared two collections of poems, one called the Book of the Wars of the Lord, the other called the Book of Jasher, or "the Upright." The date is reckoned from the fact that one of the poems in the Book of Jasher was the elegy which David made over Saul and Jonathan. (II Sam. 1:19-27.)

The oldest poem which is definitely quoted from these books is the Song of the Well, from the Book of the Wars of the Lord (Num. 21:14). The Hebrews were marching through the wilderness to the invasion of Canaan. A fragment of verse recites certain stages of their journey:

Waheb in Sufah we passed,
And the valleys of Arnon,
And the slope of the valleys

That stretches toward the dwelling of Ar,
And leans on the border of Moab.

There they dug a well, apparently in an emergency of great thirst. The princes and the nobles digged. And having found water and refreshed themselves, they sang this song:

Spring up, O well, sing ye back to her:
The well which the princes digged,
Which the nobles of the people delved,
With the sceptre and with their staves.

From the same book were probably taken the "taunt songs" which immediately follow, against Heshbon, the capital city of Sihon, king of the Amorites.

Come ye to Heshbon,

Let there be built and set up again the city of
Sihon:

For fire had gone forth from Heshbon,
Flame from the city of Sihon :

It had devoured Ar of Moab,

And consumed the high places of Arnon.

Woe unto thee, Moab,

Thou art undone, O people of Chemosh,
He hath given his sons as fugitives,

His daughters to captivity,

To the king of the Amorites, Sihon.

But we shot at them; Heshbon was undone

unto Dibon,

And we laid waste unto Nophah which lies on the desert.

It is in a quotation from the Book of Jasher that Joshua makes his famous appeal to the sun and moon (Jos. 10:12, 13). Joshua was fighting against the Amorites at the battle of Bethhoron. As the day proceeded with victory, and the approach of evening threatened to stop the slaughter before it was effectively finished, the Hebrew captain lifted his hand to heaven, crying:

Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon;

And thou, moon, in the valley of Ajalon.

And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, Until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies.

For in poetry all things are possible. A parallel passage is in the One-hundred-and-fourteenth Psalm, which says

When Israel went out of Egypt,

The house of Jacob from a people of strange language,

The mountains skipped like rams,

And the little hills like young sheep.

David's lament for Saul and Jonathan, the latest quotation from the Book of Jasher, has for its occasion not a victory but a dire defeat. The note is sounded in the refrain with which the elegy begins and ends :

How are the mighty fallen!

In these verses there is neither the hope of eventual victory, nor the comfort of religion. They have the immediacy of great grief, and belong to the very moment of disaster.

Thy glory, O Israel, is slain upon thy high places!
How are the mighty fallen!

Tell it not in Gath,

Publish it not in the streets of Askelon;

Lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice,

Lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph.

Ye mountains of Gilboa,

Let there be no dew, neither let there be rain, upon you, nor fields of offerings:

For there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast

away,

The shield of Saul, as though he had not been
anointed with oil.

From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty,

The bow of Jonathan turned not back,

And the sword of Saul returned not empty.
Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in
their lives,

And in their death they were not divided:
They were swifter than eagles,

They were stronger than lions.

Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul,

Who clothed you in scarlet, with other delights,
Who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel.

How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the
battle!

O Jonathan, thou wast slain in thine high places.
I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan:
Very pleasant hast thou been unto me:
Thy love to me was wonderful,

Passing the love of women.

How are the mighty fallen,

And the weapons of war perished!

The Book of the Wars of the Lord and the Book of Jasher are the only collections of poems which are quoted by name in the earlier books of the Bible. But these citations suffice to show that such anthologies were being made, and were being consulted by historians. Other poems either came from such collec