THE

HISTORY AND RELIGION

OF

THE HEBREW PEOPLE.

CHAPTER I.

THE HISTORY OF THE HEBREWS IN THE WILDERNESS. PECULIARITIES of Hebrew Nationality at the Exodus-State of the People -Their rational Expression of Joy-Their Journeying-Marah— Elim-Wilderness of Sin-The Quails and Manna-Miraculous Supply of Water-Amalekites-The Hebrews arrive at Sinai-Glorious Revelation of God-He delivers his Law to the People-Moses called up into the Mount-The golden Calf-The People punished and pardoned-Moses again called into the Mount-The Levitical ecclesiastical Economy promulged-The Tabernacle and its Furniture prepared-Its sacred Service begun and divinely accepted-Sin and Punishment of Nadab and Abihu-The People numbered and organized-Their Order of March-The People murmur for Flesh-Quails sent-And seventy Prophets appointed-Rebellion and Punishment of Miriam-The Israelites arrive at KadeshBarnea-The Purpose of God in their Wandering-Spies sent out -The Object and Results of their Mission-The existing Generation doomed to perish in the Wilderness—They wander thirtyeight Years The Return of the Israelites to Kadesh-The Rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram-Their miraculous Punishment The Sin and Doom of Moses and Aaron-The Edomites refuse Israel a Passage through their Country-Death of AaronPlague of fiery Serpents-Conquest of two Kings of the Amorites—Balaam—Sin and Punishment of Baal-peor-Second Cen

sus

-Joshua appointed the Leader-Conquest of the MidianitesThe Death of Moses-Order of Encampment. NOTES. Song of Moses The Healing of the Waters--Laws given at Marah— Quails The Manna a Miracle-The smitten Rock-AmalekJethro's Visit to Moses-The Meekness of Moses-Situation of Kadesh-Absurdity of rationalistic Interpretation-Miriam-The Sin of Moses-The brasen Serpent-The Plains of Moab-Numbering of the People.

RESCUED from the house of bondage, and delivered from their Egyptian enemies, the Hebrews appear before us,

not only as a separate and distinct people, but as an independent nation. With a population of two or three millions, and a body of six hundred thousand men capable of bearing arms; possessing considerable wealth in flocks and herds, and also in jewels and gold; they must be regarded as invested with all the attributes of a political community, independent of every earthly power, and prepared to assert and maintain their nationality.

In these circumstances the Israelites are distinguished by two grand peculiarities. Although they possessed numbers, power, and wealth, superior to many of the independent nations of that day, they had no country. Standing on the barren soil of the deserts of Sinai, from whose rocks and sands no sustenance could possibly be elicited, they had yet to obtain a territorial location. A country had indeed been promised them by God, and had, for ages previously, been regarded by their forefathers as the divinely-appointed inheritance of their posterity; and this people had now left Egypt under the high hope of obtaining it; but all this was to be achieved. In another respect they were unlike every other people, they had no earthly head, no recognised governor. Moses acted as their chief magistrate; but he did not assume this office as having any natural title or claim to it, or as being appointed thereto by the suffrages of the people; but as one who exercised authority in the name, and by the special appointment, of Jehovah. Nor did Moses act as one to whom God had delegated the government of this people, but rather as the servant and representative of God, who retained this government in his own hand. The Hebrew commonwealth was, therefore, from the beginning a theocracy. As they passed from the tyrannical yoke of the Egyptians, they were at once regarded as the specially elected people of Jehovah. He led them; he was their protection; he gave them not only their religious economy, but also their civil and political laws.

Yet, although the Hebrew people at this time had no human governor, nor any national constitution, and had

just emerged from a slavish vassalage, it must not be supposed that they marched as an unconnected, disorderly crowd, or manifested their joy at this great deliverance in unmeaning ebullitions of ecstasy, licentious mirth, or wild and lawless action. They appear to have possessed a simple and perfect bond of union in their family arrangements and connexion. The people were divided into tribes, the tribes into families, and these were further subdivided; so that, according to regular family descent, the multitudes of the Hebrew people were arranged in an orderly and systematic manner. This mode of arrangement not only produced order, but created, what was essential to its maintenance, gradations of rank. The hereditary heads of the tribes, according to the well-known usage of patriarchal life, exercised authority as princes; the chiefs of the several families were next in subordinate rank; and so on, for the further subdivisions. Thus throughout this immense host an universally ramified paternal authority was every where exercised, producing a unity and order which to a great extent supplied the place both of formal civil polity, and regular military organization. This mode of family arrangement existed among the Hebrews whilst in Egypt, and those hereditary chiefs were the "elders" whom God commissioned Moses to address. (Exod. iii. 16.)

The manner in which this people rejoiced at their deliverance, while it illustrates the orderly state of the multitude, also exhibits their intellectual and moral cultivation. They had escaped from evils as weighty in aggravated affliction, as humiliating and debasing in their effects, as had ever pressed upon any people. This state of abject woe had continued so long, that most of the people delivered at the exodus must have been born into it, as their inheritance. Yet how did these men manifest their joy, after having suddenly obtained a great accession of wealth, seen their tyrant foes destroyed, and felt themselves restored to perfect freedom? Much as is implied in the statement, it may be safely answered, that they did so in a manner worthy of the great occasion. Moses composed a thanksgiving-ode, which the thousands of Israel, both men and women,

united in singing, as they exulted in their new-born freedom on the shores of the Red Sea. In this noble piece of poetry, full of sublime thought, breathing deeply pious and grateful feeling, and replete with enlarged views of the consequences which would result from this glorious deliverance, we have an expression of the mind of the Hebrew public on this great occasion.* As the ode was adapted for alternate recitation, not only did the men of Israel shout forth their joy in its sacred strains, but the women also, led on by Miriam, and accompanying their voices with instrumental music, swelled the chorus of thanksgiving, and re-echoed to the skies,

"Sing to Jehovah; for he is very greatly exalted:

The horse and his rider he hath cast into the sea."

Where in all history do we find a great national deliverance so appropriately acknowledged? Let this public action be tested by the highest standard, in regard to elevated religious devotion, sterling intellectual dignity, elegant and cultivated taste; and then let those who speak of these Hebrews as a horde of semi-savages tell us, what great public act in the best ages of Greece or Rome will bear a comparison with this grateful conduct of the redeemed Israelites. At first sight, all the dignity and intellectual grandeur of this proceeding may be attributed to the superior learning and mental cultivation of Moses, who, having been bred up in the Egyptian court, may not be regarded as a fair sample of Hebrew cultivation. Yet it must be remembered, that this poetry was not written for the purpose of parading the mental cultivation of the Israelites before the world, but, on a great and solemn emergency, to guide the grateful effusion of their individual mind in suitable channels of expression to Heaven. It was therefore not only necessary that the terms of this splendid epic should be worthy of the grand occasion which gave it birth, but equally so, that they should be exactly adapted to the state of thought, feeling, and intel

lectual calibre of the people for whose use it was written. And if this were so, it will follow that the Hebrews of that day ought to be regarded, not only as a civilized, but also to a considerable extent as an enlightened and cultivated, people.

Having thus returned thanksgiving to God for their deliverance, and collected the spoil of their enemies, the Israelites pursued their way through the wilderness. From the shores of the Red Sea they journeyed three successive days. During this march the people suffered greatly for want of water; and their sufferings were aggravated when they arrived at Marah, and found the waters so bitter that they could not drink it. This led them to murmur against Moses, and to demand of him a supply of this necessary element; saying, "What shall we drink?" (Exod. xv. 24.) The impropriety and wickedness of this conduct is more evident than the amount of suffering which occasioned it; and both should be fairly considered. It may not, indeed, be possible for us to form a just idea of the magnitude of this affliction. But when it is considered that this immense host, consisting of men, women, and children, with numerous herds of cattle, had to travel mostly on foot over a sandy desert, under a burning sun; it will be seen that not only their property, but their lives, depended upon a plentiful supply of water. After three days' privation, and consequent extreme suffering, when they reached a station where this natural beverage was found in abundance, and promised an instant alleviation of all their pain,-to find this so intolerably bitter that it was utterly useless, was enough to try the temper and excite the feeling of any people. It is not just to regard the Israelites in this case in comparison with those troops of military men who, in their warlike pursuits, have endured the greatest suffering with fortitude and resignation. The Israelites were not prepared for this endurance by discipline; and, more than this, they had not to bear it alone; their aged and helpless parents, their weary wives and famishing children, were alike partakers of the pain. The intensity of the suffering can therefore be scarcely exaggerated. But their error and