generation, through many centuries, the Hebrews brought their better knowledge of God. The gods disappear, and their place is taken by the Lord of all the earth. The cause of the flood is not a divine caprice, but a divine purpose to make a better race of men by beginning over again with a new Adam and Eve on Mt. Ararat. After the flood, the bow in the cloud is made a sign of the divine patience.

The value of most of these stories, however, is not in their great age, nor in any moral which they teach, but consists altogether in their simple human interest. If any of them represent, as some say, the migrations and relationships of tribes and families, only the most diligent scholars shall ever find it out. Nor is their interest obscured by the fact that their scenes are laid in Asia. The men and women of these stories are of our own kind and kin, and the tales that are told about them are true to human nature as we know it. Moreover, the manner of the telling has the perfection which is gained only by the process of centuries of repetition.

The longest of the stories deals with the Adventures of Joseph, who being sold by his brethren as a slave becomes the governor of all the land of Egypt. The most charming of them is the pleasant and peaceful tale of the Wooing of Rebekah. It comes in among the songs of war, and the accounts of battles, like the shining of a clear day in the midst of a season of tempestuous weather.

T

VI

THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN

HE narratives of Joshua and Judges have all the picturesque qualities of the narratives of the Pentateuch for they belong to the same period, and are the result of the same process. They were shaped not by literary composition but by popular recitation. They were told for centuries before they were written.

If these books were printed like other books, one of the differences between these histories and other histories would be evident to every reader. History is commonly written in solid paragraphs, but these pages, if they were normally printed, would show the brief and lively paragraphing which is used in accounts of conversation. The numbered verses disguise the fact that the people of the Pentateuch, and of Joshua and Judges, are always talking. An unfailing human interest is imparted to these narratives by the fact that these men and women speak for themselves.

It is plain that such conversation has no basis in contemporary records. Nobody took down these words. Neither Abraham nor Isaac recorded what they said, the one to the other, on their way to the mountain of the sacrifice. Neither Moses nor Joshua recorded what they said as they came down from Sinai and heard shouting and singing in the camp. The nar

rator knew that they said something: they did not walk in silence. He asked himself what they probably said under such circumstances, and he found an answer in his imagination. His purpose was to make the situation real to his hearers or his readers, and this he did in the most natural way by dramatizing it. This is a liberty into which the modern historian will not venture, but the ancient historian had no such scruple. Accordingly, the history of the Hebrews in Genesis and Exodus, in Joshua and Judges, differs from the history of the Romans in Gibbon's Decline and Fall as the Henry the Eighth of Shakespeare differs from the Henry the Eighth of Froude. It is one of the reasons why the Bible history has kept its interest through all these hundred of years.

The narratives of Joshua and Judges which agree with the narratives of the Pentateuch in dramatic form, differ from them in being made to serve a moral purpose. The story of the Wooing of Rebekah has no moral. It is simply a delightful tale of a faithful servant and a charming maiden. But the story of the Siege of Ai (Jos. 8) includes an explanation of the moral reasons on account of which the Hebrews were defeated. The army of Joshua had attacked Ai and been repulsed.

And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads. And Joshua said:-"Alas, O Lord God, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side

Jordan! O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies! For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do unto thy great name?" And the Lord said unto Joshua:-"Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the devoted thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff. Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they are become devoted: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the devoted thing from among you. Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against to-morrow: for thus saith the Lord God of Israel, There is a devoted thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the devoted thing from among you. In the morning therefore ye shall be brought according to your tribes: and it shall be, that the tribe which the Lord taketh shall come according to the families thereof; and the family which the Lord shall take shall come by households; and the household which the Lord shall take shall come man by man. And it shall be, that he that is taken with the devoted thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath: because he hath transgressed the covenant of the Lord, and because he hath wrought folly in Israel."

So they made an investigation and found that Achan had stolen from the spoils of Jericho a wedge of gold, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a goodly Babylonish garment. Him they stoned to death, together with his sons and daughters, and burned them with fire. The cause of defeat being thus removed, they went on to victory.

This moralizing of the narrative appears again and

again in Judges. The book is made to illustrate a proposition which is stated repeatedly. This proposition is set forth in its simplest form in the account of the deliverance at the hand of Othniel (Jud. 3:1-11).

And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and forgat the Lord their God, and served the Baalim and the Asherim. Therefore the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Chushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia: and the children of Israel served Chushan-rishathaim eight years. And when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer to the children of Israel, who delivered them, even Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel, and went out to war: and the Lord delivered Chushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand; and his hand prevailed against Chushanrishathaim. And the land had rest forty years.

The same sequence introduces the exploits of Gideon. The people forsake the Lord and do evil; therefore the Lord gives them over to the oppression of enemies; at last they cry to the Lord for help; and the Lord sends a savior.

This idea that if the people sin they shall be defeated, and if they repent they shall be delivered, is characteristic of Deuteronomy. It was profoundly impressed by that book upon the mind of Israel.

The problem of pain has occupied the thoughts of men from time immemorial. Why do we suffer? Why is life so hard? Why do our foes have the upper hand? Even so early as the story of the Garden of Eden an answer was given to these questions in terms of sin. We suffer because we disobey. God forsakes us be