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SERIES OF HAND-BOOKS IN SEMITICS
EDITED BY
JAMES ALEXANDER CRAIG
PROFESSOR OF SEMITIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES AND
HELLENISTIC GREEK, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Recent scientific research has stimulated an increasing interest
in Semitic studies among scholars, students, and the serious read-
ing public generally. It has provided us with a picture of a
hitherto unknown civilization, and a history of one of the great
branches of the human family.
The object of the present Series is to state its results in popu-
larly scientific form. Each work is complete in itself, and the
Series, taken as a whole, neglects no phase of the general subject.
Each contributor is a specialist in the subject assigned him, and
has been chosen from the body of eminent Semitic scholars both in
Europe and in this country.
The Series will be composed of the following volumes :
i I. Hebrews. History and Government. By Professor J. F.
McCurdy, University of Toronto, Canada.
II. Hebrews. Ethics and Religion. By Professor Archibald
Duff, Airedale College, Bradford, England. [Now Ready.
III. HEBREWS. The Social Life.. By the Rev. Edward Day,
Springfield, Mass.
Now Rendy.
IV. BABYLONIANS AND ASSYRIANS, with introductory chapter
on the Sumerians. History to the Fall of Babylon.
V. BABYLONIANS AND Assyrians. Religion. By Prufessor J.
A. Craig, University of Michigan.
VI. BABYLONIANS AND ASSYRIANS. Life and Customs. By
Professor A. H. Sayce, University of Oxford, England.
(Now Ready.
VII. BABYLONIANS AND Assyrians. Excavations and Account
of Decipherment of Inscriptions. By Professor A. V.
Hilprecht, University of Pennsylvania.
VIII. Syria AND PALESTINE. Early History. By Professor
Lewis Bayles Paton, Hartford Theological Seminary.
[Now Ready.
IX. DEVELOPMENT OF ISLAMIC THEOLOGY, JURISPRUDENCE,
AND THEORY OF STATE. By Professor D. B. Mac-
donald, Hartford Theological Seminary.
The following volumes are to be included in the Series, and
others may be added :
X. PHENICIA. History and Government, including Colonies,
Trade, and Religion.
XI. ARABIA, Discoveries in, and History and Religion until
. Mohammed.
XII. ARABIC LITERATURE AND SCIENCE SINCE MOHAMMED.
XIII. THE INFLUENCE OF SEMITIC ART AND MYTHOLOGY ON
WESTERN NATIONS.
The Semitic Series
THE THEOLOGY AND ETHICS OF
THE HEBREWS
: BY ARCHIBALD DUFF
Tbe semitic series
THE THEOLOGY AND ETHICS
OF THE HEBREWS
DIT
BY
ARCHIBALD DUFF, M.A., LL.D., B.D.
PROFESSOR OF OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY IN THE YORKSHIRE
UNITED INDEPENDENT COLLEGE, BRADFORD, ENGLAND
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1902
COPYRIGHT, 1902, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
Published, April, 1902
TROW DIREOTORY
PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY
NEW YORK
TO
MY HOME
M. H. C. D.
M.N.D., AND A.C.D.,
I DEDICATE THIS BOOK
A. D.
133476
PREFACE
A TRUE exposition of the Religion and Ethics of
the Hebrews must be a narrative of a constant move-
ment. The men of those ages were mentally alive
and progressive. Consequently our exposition must
prove to be a vision of a steady progress of religion
through the ages. The movement and development
of men are seen truly only in their own utterances,
not in what chroniclers have said of them. There-
fore, in our pages we try to let the thinkers' own
words be read. This becomes the more imperative
to-day when the careful student of texts and times
tells us that the traditional views of these have been
mistaken, and that much rearrangement of passages
is necessary, if we are to read the words of the origi-
nal writers as they were written.
The case becomes very serious when we deal with
the Pentateuch and other narrative books. Few
students do not now see that these are composite
works, and that the various elements in them belong
to different writers and different periods of time. But
then the reader asks, what were the original works
vii
viii
PREFACE
from which these elements were taken ? Dr. Bacon
of Yale University restored three of these works,
the Yahwist, the Elohist, and the Priestly writers, so
far as they are contained in the Pentateuch. The
present author has published the Yahwist (J) and
the Elohist (E) in full, i.e., as they are contained in
all the narrative books from Genesis to 2 Kings. In
the present work a summary analysis of J and E
is given in Appendices I. and II. to place the reader
so far in possession of the facts.
Concerning the Deuteronomists the case is more
difficult. Here no full analysis has been made save
that sketched by Professors Staerck and Steuernagel,
as described in our pages. Nothing has yet been
published in English fully describing these analyses.
In this volume the first effort has been made to show
in restored form the original documents from which
our Deuteronomy has been constructed. It is the
more important to do this, even at cost of some
space, because the opinion is gaining ground that
Josiah's Reformation, 622 B.C., must have been the
normal outcome of the religious movements of the
century of the great Prophets, 800 to 700 B.C. Still
many, and, indeed, most scholars hesitate to study
Deuteronomy in this light and also to study that
1 B. W. Bacon's Genesis of Genesis, 1891 ; and his Triple
Tradition of the Exodus, 1894. Hartford. A. Duff's Old Testa-
ment Theology, vol. ii., 1900. A. & C. Black, Londoą.
PREFACE
is
century, 800 to 700 B.C., in the light which that Book
throws back upon it. The present author has there-
fore felt it a duty to give in this volume especial
attention to Deuteronomy.
The Hebrew religion and ethical life reached a
culmination in the Exile, in the ideals of the Slave-
Singer, which are almost identical with those of
Jesus, five centuries later. The men who had reached
this height, went out or remained out in the world
doing their work of evangel; they were necessarily
lost to history so far as they were Hebrews. In
them Hebrew religion and ethics attained their cli-
max, completion and close. Our volume, therefore,
ceases at that climax.
ARCHIBALD DUFF.
UNITED COLLEGE, BRADFORD, YORKSHIRE.
February 20, 1901.
CONTENTS
PART I
EARLY HEBREW LIFE: ITS RELIGION
AND MORALS
CHAPTER I
THE FIRST HOMES AND GOSHEN .
PAGE
.
.
.
.
1
CHAPTER II
The New NOMADIC LIFE . . .
.
.
.
.
9
CHAPTER III
. . .
THE SETTLEMENT.
ETTLEMENT
.
.
.
CHAPTER IV
RELIGION AND MORALS. . .
.
.
.
.
19
PART II
THE EARLY NARRATIVE LITERATURE
900 TO 800 B.C.
INTRODUCTORY . . . . . . . . .
22
xii
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
THE RELIGION OF THE YAHWISTIC LITERATURE
PAGE
. 24
.
CHAPTER II
THE ETHIOS OF THE YAHWISTIC SCHOOL .
.
.
.
34
PART III
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
800 TO 700 B.C.
. . . .
INTRODUCTORY .
.
.
.
. 38
CHAPTER I
- THE PREACHING OF Amos . . . . . .
SOME CHIEF HEBREW EVENTS WITH PROBABLE DATES
. 39
: 42
CHAPTER II
W THE PROPHET HOSEA : 740 TO 720 B.O. .
.
.
.
54
CHAPTER III
.
ISAIAH, PROPHET AND STATESMAN : 740 to 700 B.C. .
The Story of His Statesmanship . . .
--The Substance of His Sermons . . .
Outline of Micah's Preaching . . . .
.
. 79
. 88
. 109
CONTENTS
xiii
PAGE
CHAPTER IV
ETHICS AND THEOLOGY OF THE GREAT MORAL PROPHETS 111
1. The Primary Fact and Feature in these Moral
Preachers . .
. . . . 111
-2. The Ethics of these Prophets . . . . 115
-3. The Ideals of these Prophets . . . . 118
4. The Theology Proper of these Prophets . . 123
PART IV
THE FORMAL DOCTRINAL TEACHERS
750 to 700 B.C.
INTRODUCTORY. .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. 130
CHAPTER I
THE DEUTERONOMISTS . . . .
The Problem and the Clew to Solution
.
.
.
.
. 135
. 135
CHAPTER II
THEOLOGY AND ETHICS OF THE FORMAL TEACHERS.
143
xiv
CONTENTS
PART V
THE THEOLOGY AND ETHICS OF THE
PERIOD OF POLITICAL REORGANISA-
TION IN JUDAH
700 To 600 B.C.
CHAPTER I
PAGE
THE CENTURY .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. 149
JOSIAH'S REFORMATION
FORMATION
.
.
.
.
.
. 154
CHAPTER III
NAHUM AND ZEPHANIAH .
.
.
.
.
.
. 161
CHAPTER IV
THE THEOLOGY AND ETHICS OF JEREMIAH, THE CRITIC OF
THE REFORMATION . . . . . . . 164
CHAPTER V
THE NEAR SEQUEL OF THE REFORMATION : ITS THEOLOGY
AND ETHICS AS SEEN IN HABAKKUK, OBADIAH, AND IN
INCIPIENT INTEREST IN ZION, LAW, AND PSALMODY . 175
CONTENTS
XY
PART VI
RELIGION AND ETHICS IN THE EXILE
500 B.C., ONWARD
CHAPTER I
THE EXILES AND THEIR PROBLEM
.
.
.
PAGE
. 181
.
CHAPTER II
The Exzuio LITERATURE .
.
.
.
.
.
. 186
CHAPTER III
THE ANSWERS TO THE EXILIO PROBLEM. . . . 188
1. The Answer of the Writers of the Book of Job 188
2. The Answer of the “Holiness Law" . . 189
3. The Answer of Ezekiel . . . . . 191
4. The Answers in the “Comfort-Poem” in
Isaiah . . . . . . . . 195
CHAPTER IV
THE FAITES OF THE COMFORT POEM
.
.
.
. 198
CHAPTER V
THE FOUR SONGS OF THE SUFFERING SLAVE.
.
: 207
CHAPTER VI
. . .
THE HIDDEN RESULT
.
.
.
. 214
pi
ONTENTS
APPENDIX I
PAGE
ANALYTICAL CONTENTS OF THE YAHWISTIC NARRATIVE . 219
1. The Epic of the Beginnings of Life . . . 219
2. The Epic of the Exodus . . . . . 224
3. The Epic of the Settlement West of Jordan, un-
der Joshua . . . . . . . 231
4. Stories of Heroes who Saved the Ibhrim (Hebrews)
in Times of Oppression by Surrounding Peoples 233
5. The Gilgal Story of the Kingdom . . . 235
APPENDIX II
ANALYSIS OF THE ELOHISTIC NARRATIVE (circa 730 B.C.) 243
1. The Days before the Yahweh-Character was
Revealed . . . . . . . . 243
2. The Revelation of the New Name of God. . 247
3. New Teaching by Statutes . . . . . 250
4. The Original Deuteronomic Law . . . . 255
5. The Story of the Settlement in Canaan . . 258
6. The Elohistic Stories of Heroes, or Judges. . 261
7. The Elohistic Story of the Founding of the King-
dom at Mizpah . . . . . . . 262
APPENDIX III
THE OUTLINES OF THE ORIGINAL “D” DOCUMENTS 268
A. The “ JUDGE" or Hosea-like “D” Document . 268
i. The Hortatory Prelude . . . . . . 268
CONTENTS
xvii
PAGE
ii. Outline of the Directions of the "Judge” Doc-
ument . . . . . . . . 269
iii. The Text of the "Judge” Document .270
iv. Liturgical Appendix . . . . . . 282
v. The Closing Portion of the Setting . . . 283
B. The “ELDER” Amos-like Document . . . 283
APPENDIX IV
OUTLINE ANALYSES OF THE ORACLES OF JEREMIAH .
i. According to Cornill. . . . .
ii. According to Duhm . . . . .
. 286
. 286
. 287
PART I
EARLY HEBREW LIFE: ITS RELIGION
AND MORALS
CHAPTER I
THE FIRST HOMES AND GOSHEN
THE discovery, in 1888, of the famous box of tab-
let letters at Tel-el-Amarna, on the east of the Nile,
between Minieh and Siout, has given us a picture of
great value. By careful study of these documents we
are enabled to know more than merely the officers
and the majesties who wrote them from Assyria,
Syria, Canaan, and Egypt to one another.
Recent research' by Drs. Niebuhr and Winckler
have shown that two of the original fountains of pop-
ulation in those far-off days were Central Arabia, on
the south or southeast, and Asia Minor on the north-
west. Out of these homes went continual emigra-
tions, driven out by lack of food and freedom. From
Arabia an early stream went toward the Euphrates
delta, another, perhaps, across the Red Sea. But
one of great interest to us went toward Palestine
and, arriving there, the folk were called “Migrators,"
Ibhrim, Hebrews, as they wandered with their flocks,
or settled beside their fields.
1 Der alte Orient. Leipzig, Ilinrichs, 1900.
0
EARLY HEBREW LIFE
But they met with resistances, offered especially
by hosts who came from the northern source in Asia
Minor. Those from the north were the people called
Hittites in our Old Testament literature. The He-
brew literature contains tradition of commercial or
military conflicts between the Hebrews and Hittites
near Hebron, and perhaps on the mountain-yoke
Shechem. These conflicts gave the material, appar-
ently, for the stories of Gen. xxiii., and possibly for
that of Gen. xxxiv. In these struggles the Hebrews
gained landed possessions and learned to believe that
their deity, Yahweh, enabled his followers to obtain
honour, power, wealth, and victory. The scenes of
battle and bargain became famous sanctuaries where
the Hebrews always felt they might meet together
as a people with their divine patron and renew their
blood-kin by the feast of flesh.
About four centuries before David, perhaps 1400
B.C., these nomads moved away from a temporary
stay caused by famine, near the lake lands close to the
present Suez canal. This region was called Goshen.
Let us try to realise the outline of actual history in
all this. We may discover it by regular historical
method from the varied records made by different
men, who, at successive times, looked at their past
through the different media of their circumstances.
We can gather together the features that are common
to all and that bear signs of persistence in the mem-
ory of the people from the occurrence of the events
down to the times of the narrators. It will appear
that we have here a history not of a people, merely,
but of a religion.
THE FIRST HOMES AND GOSHEN
The sojourners in Goshen had been wanderers,
nomadic shepherds in the narrow strip of territory
lying between the Mediterranean and the Jordan,
and which is the highway from Asia and Europe to
Africa, and also in the somewhat desert, yet largely
fruitful land lying east of the Jordan. They claimed
connection with tribes lying on the eastern slopes of
the White Mountains, or Lebanons, and centring in
Damascus the ancient garden of the world. There
was a notable spot in that region where sacred festi-
vals had been held, where covenants had been formed,
where a great patriarch had been buried. Probably
it was there that the specially honoured name, which
the tribe loved to bear in all the ages, the name “Is-
rael” arose. The meaning of this name seems to be
“It is a deity that is prince”: by appropriating it the
people recorded in that northeastern shrine their
faith that they had a god, who was the prince yet
intimate member of their tribe, and also that this
chieftain and the people shared in the consequent
dignity and obligations. It might be customary to
call the people “Jacob,” which means, “supplanter,"
“lier-in-wait;” that name might express the character
of the tribe as ordinarily seen : yet the other name was
true also; the mere name implied a high ideal for that
day, even amid consciousness of much that was ques-
tionable in the people's ways. It is notable that
certain ruins in that northeastern region show that
there have been honoured sanctuaries there down to
comparatively recent times. The oases on the long
road toward the Euphrates were so welcome to the
See Stade Entstehung des Volkes Israel, 1899.
EARLY HEBREW LIFE
caravans that very naturally places of worship were
planted in such spots. The mountain-sides gave
some visions of such beauty and command that men
naturally felt at such points that the Unseen was
near.
There was however one special point in the Pal-
estine region that was the chief centre toward which
the wanderers turned for guidance and festival joys.
That was the “Shechem," or the “Shoulder," the
chief mountain-pass between the Mediterranean and
the Jordan Valley. This was the centre of the whole
country's area. A festal fire burning there could be
seen from almost every part of the land. This place
was always honoured, and was visited frequently by
the nomads in the earliest days. Some unchaste re-
ligious doings were practised here; strange connec-
tions, religious and social, were formed with non-
Hebrew tribes. Some bloody deeds were said to
have occurred at the seizure of the spot as a Hebrew
possession, in which for ages the most sacred relig-
ious acts of the tribe should be performed.
Such were the old haunts which the Goshen people
loved to tell of in their tribal traditions. But they
had also intimate religious relationship with sacred
spots in the nearer and more desert lands of the far
south. There was a famous place, an oasis perhaps,
called The Well of Oath (or Seven), commonly known
as Beersheba, far in the south on the lands where the
wandering Hebrews came in special contact with
Philistines and made covenants with their kings or
sheikhs. Perhaps the sanctuary called Kadesh-
1 Cf. G. A. Smith's Historical Geography of the Holy Land, 117 ff.
THE FIRST HOMES AND GOSHEN
Barnea (i.e., the Sanctuary of Barne) was near the
same southern spot.
To this fact is to be added another that is of much
religious significance. We may say that one of the
earliest and also most persistent points in Hebrew
theology was that the tribal god, Yahweh, was a
Storm-god or Rain-god, and that his original home
was in the far south. The storms blew up from the
south; and so Habakkuk's song begins
“God came from the South (Teman).”
By far the most notable sanctuary and theophany
honoured among the traditions of the Deliverance from
Egypt were assigned to the mountain-regions in the
Sinaitic peninsula. The peaks there are probably
the scene and focus of many a terrible thunder-storm.
They are granitic rocks, some of which are 9,000 feet
in height. In the brilliant sunlight the red rocks
pour out a very blaze of fiery light. So, too, do the
limestone plateaus that lie farther north. Further-
more, these desert stretches bear chiefly a low, thorny
plant. The mountain-range bears the name “Sînai,"
derived from the name of the desert, which is “Sîn”;
and this word “Sîn” seems certainly the same as
the Hebrew Sene, i.e., thorn bush. These facts ap-
pear to give the meaning to the story that here a man
Iv. H. Kiepert's Alte Geographie, 1878, p. 184.
? P. Loti's Le Desert, p. 83.
Vide Paton, The Early History of Syria and Palestine (this
series), p. 50, who connects it with sin, the Babylonian Moon-god.
Neither derivation is free from difficulty, though both are possible.
-[Craig).
EARLY HEBREW LIFE
saw God amid a blaze of burning thorns. Wandering
in those regions was a lad who was to become ere long
the leader of the Hebrew people: he was shepherd-
ing his sheep amid the red granite mountains. The
flock browsed upon the thorny plants that bordered
the pasture in the oasis. The man sat at dawn by
the stream, and watched the fiery rocks. Yonder
streamed the level sunlight across the low growth.
Each spine glistened against the rising sun. The man
was a poet, one fit for inspiration. He felt that the
dreams of his soul were the whisperings of his God,
the place his sanctuary. He bowed and worshipped.
Thenceforth he set himself to the task of bringing
the Hebrew people out of Egypt to worship here. A
theology was nascent in the thought, and more than
nascent; it was strong and rugged. In the power of
the ideas which this young man in this hour cast into
a very creed of purposes and expectations, he became
one of the forerunners and prophets of Hebrew re-
ligion.
That scene compels our thoughts to revert to Egypt.
The youth we have watched was probably an Egyp-
tian: the Hebrews always called him a Lewi, i.e., an
attaché. He was one of a large number of camp fol-
lowers who left Egyptian homes and went with the
Hebrews when they marched away from Goshen.
These Egyptians were probably fugitives from the
monarch's oppression. The Hebrews in Goshen had
been doubtless tributary to Egypt. They had gone
to the neighbourhood of the fertile Nile delta through
the pressure of one of those fainines that visit so often
and so naturally the semi-civilised East. The trou-
THE FIRST HOMES AND GOSHEN
7
bles incident to eastern lands, and especially to the
delta and the valley of the great river, came upon
Egypt as usual, and the Hebrews saw their masters
often suffer from polluted water, from malarial flies,
from horrible locust-swarms, from cattle-pest, and
from destructive storms of thunder and hail. The
Hebrews had suffered too, but less than the Egyptians,
who were tillers of the soil. The Hebrews were per-
suaded that these curses were from the anger of the
gods, and especially from that of their own god, the
Rain-god. Their religion, as we have already seen,
was a faith that their god Yahweh, and they them-
selves were stronger and wiser than all other gods
and men. It became a favourite Hebrew tradition
that one of their number, Joseph, had been a wise
counsellor of the Pharaoh, and that he had helped to
meet the famine difficulty, to rearrange the Egyptian
land-law in a practical, feudal method.
But the Hebrews had learned and taken on a good
many Egyptian ways. They had learned from the
Egyptians, perhaps unwillingly at first, especially
that sacred rite of circumcision which was practised
by the father-in-law on a bridegroom. Another very
important Hebrew observance was always held to
have been brought from Egypt, namely, the so-called
Leap-Feast, or Passover. This may have been a
celebration of the intercalary days needed to bring
the ordinary reckoning by moons into agreement
with the solar spring-time. Egypt was a land of as-
tronomers as well as of tillers of the ground.
The occasion of the departure from Goshen was
evidently a startling calamity which befell the royal
EARLY HEBREW LIFE
family. The king's first-born son died suddenly.
It seems as if a general slaying of first-born sons
throughout the land followed. Perhaps it was or-
dered by the government, after a manner common
among semi-barbarous peoples. The Hebrews were
spared this: they believed that their god, Yahweh,
defended them, for he “passed over them.” But
probably the decree had gone forth that Hebrew first-
born sons should die as well as those of the Egyp-
tians; and this apparently occasioned the flight.
But the chief mover and leader was the young
“Moses” who had found God near him away in the
thorny desert and had returned to Egypt. He had
pointed to the plagues of Egypt as Yahweh's scourge
upon the land ; he had preached that the way of
safety for the Hebrews, and for Egyptians, too, was
that a great pilgrimage should be made into the
thorny land and to the awful mountains where Yah-
weh could best be worshipped. Pharaoh resisted
and tried to prevent the march when it was begun.
But Moses led out the whole tribe and a larger band
of Egyptians, who attached themselves to the fugi-
tives and who were thereafter known as the At-
tachés, the Lewiim, or “Levites.” There were dan-
gers as on the fleeing people wandered through the
shallow, swampy lakes, but the escape was made,
and the three days' march went forward toward the
divine mountain where the deliverer promised that
they should have a theophany like his own.
CHAPTER II
THE NEW NOMADIC LIFE
THE march went straight to Sinai. There the de-
liverer believed they should see as he had seen; and as
he had received so they should receive inspiration for
all their future life. They were happy in the fulfil-
ment of this hope. An awful lightning and thunder-
storm raged about the peaks while they tented there;
the later tradition tells how they called the chief peak
afterward the Burning One, or Horeb (2717). They
watched and trembled as the lightnings flashed.
They listened to the thunders and told each other
that Yahweh, the god of storms, was speaking to
them. Their leaders, the deliverer, and a chosen
band besides, spread a table up somewhere on the
heights as if to feast this god. They ate and drank.
Suddenly there fell a bolt, dazzling all with the
steel blue of the electric flash. To see a lightning-
stroke close to one's eyes, to live in it and after it, is
to understand what those primitive men felt. They
said that God had descended and eaten and drunk
with them, and they lived.
Then, or thereabouts, two slabs were brought
down from the heights. There were strange mark-
ings upon them, crystalline, fossil, or otherwise.
The people had seen hieroglyphics ; they took the
mysterious marks to be the hieroglyphic letters of
10
EARLY HEBREW LIFE
the deity's speech. What the words meant, they
always thought it hard to tell : in after ages they in-
terpreted them in various ways. But those two slabs
were thenceforward preserved by the people as a
sacred memorial of that great day. They were
enclosed in a casket, or perhaps planted upright in it
or on it somewhat as sacred pillars (maççebahs) that
could be thus set up anywhere by simply setting the
casket on the ground. And this casket seems to
have been counted for ages the visible shrine of their
god. With this casket and its enclosed tablets, they
believed themselves invincible. In some strange
ways they used them as the Greeks used their orac-
ular tubes, seeking oracles through them for their
guidance. There arose in time a sacred formula con-
nected with this relic, whereby they called their god
“ The Almighty Yahweh who sits
Throned upon the winged creatures."
This seems to suggest that the seeming hieroglyphic
figures on the slabs were fossils or else crystalline
forms resembling winged creatures. Therefore the
people called them “Kroobs," i.e., Griffins (T pink).
Here again it is evident in what sense these Hebrews
were a religious people. From the earliest times
when we begin to have records of them, we find them
furnished with religious emblems, and looking upon
these as their central characteristic facts. We are
justified in speaking of their common views of these
facts as their Theology.
The Deity whom they worshipped they called
Yahweh (77773). The pronunciation of the word is
THE NEW NOMADIC LIFE
11
made certain to us by the usage of early Greek Chris-
tians who were free from the Jewish superstition that
the name was ineffable, or dangerous if pronounced.
This pronunciation is preserved also in many early
Hebrew names compounded of the word Yahu, or
Yahw, and the added predicate, as, for example, the
name Isaiah which is Yesha-Yahw. The word Yahweh
is a causative incipient, 3rd sing. from the stem
Hawah. This plain bit of Hebrew grammar remains
sure, in spite of many obstinate objectors. Hawah
means "fell”: this is also certain. Thus the name
of the deity was very naturally explained in the
prophets' days as “He who is going to cause falling
rain and so cause life and all things."1 Possibly, of
course, the word came originally from some interjec-
tion or exclamatory word used by very early wor-
shippers; but the theology of Amos and Jeremiah
concerning the name and character was evidently
understood by the contemporaries of these prophets
in 800 to 600 B.C., and the Yahwistic school of nar-
rative writers, from whom our earliest records of the
people come, lived about 900 B.C., for they bring
their story down to that date. Therefore the Amo-
sian and Jeremianic theology of the name was doubt-
less nascent, to say the least, when the story of the
Yahwists was written down. It is difficult to get
behind the Yahwistic ways of thinking, but we may
reasonably infer that the nomadic Hebrews thought
of Yahweh as that CAUSER OF FALLING who caused
rain and thus the happening of life of plants and
beasts and men. No doubt Yahweh was also a war-
1 Am. v. 4, etc., Jer. xiv. 21 f., xxxiii. 1 ff.
12
EARLY HEBREW LIFE
god, for in every war of tribes the tribal deities were
the leaders of the hosts.
Yahweh loved the common meal: even at dread
Sinai he shared it. Professor W. R. Smith's fine ex-
position of the Religion of the Semites 1 shows how
he entered into fellowship with the members of the
tribe, just as they entered into fellowship with each
other by sharing the common flesh feast. The beast
of flock or herd was stabbed or beaten to death upon
a slaughtering-stone, or over a heap of earth, which
was called rata, “Slaughtering-place.” The blood
ran down into the loose earth or among the heaped
stones, and the unseen deity received it as one
part of his share. He received also the smoke and
pleasing odour of the burning of all offal or uneat-
able parts. The flesh was boiled, and the worship-
ping tribe ate together. Then they rose and danced
in circles, shouting in their pleasure over the hearty
meal. Probably even thus early the shout was Hal!
Hal! Hallel! Its meaning was something like our
Halloo! the Greek óroluyń, and the Latin ululare.
Hence come the words Tehillah (ban), i.e., psalm, or
shout and song of worship, and Hallelu-Yah (079 5577),
i.e., “Shout ye! O Yah.'” Probably in special cases
there were also sprinklings of blood upon any who
were specially pledging themselves to any task of
duty, such as war. Libations of wine and oil were
poured out upon the ground or upon the heap of
stones, so that the deity might receive this share of
1 W. R. Smith, Religion of the Semites, 2d Edition, 1895. Lon-
don, A. & C. Black.
2 See 1 Sam. ii. 15 (Elohistic); and Deut. xvi.
THE NEW NOMADIC LIFE
13
the tribal food and drink, while all the worshippers
drank and grew merry. Covenants were formed thus
between the tribe and their god, or between tribe and
any other persons or tribe. The occasions for the
covenants furnished the occasions for the feasts.
While the people were nomadic, they could not well
observe the festival dates which agricultural peoples
celebrate, for these latter are the times of glad reap-
ing of corn and wine. But the new moons and the
reappearing seven planets fixed great dates for
feastings.
The trend of development among nomads is toward
settlement and agricultural life, just as pastoral no-
madism is the stage which follows the hunter's life.
So the wandering Hebrews gradually settled on arable
lands on either side of the Jordan. They were evi-
dently unwilling to remain nomadic very long, for they
made raids into Palestine from the south and from
the east. The stories say that they wandered only
for a single generation, i.e., some forty years: and
this would be the more natural because they had been
a partially settled people in Goshen. That they did
not enjoy nomadism is further evident from the rec-
ords that they often mutinied against the leader and
deliverer because the desert life was not so comfort-
able as life in Goshen had been. They disliked the
slight fruit of the desert herbage, and the occasional
meal of quail: the land "flowing with milk and honey"
seemed never to be reached.
In these mutinies the defenders of the leader were
those kinsmen of his, the Lewiim, who had attached
themselves to the tribe at the Exodus, hoping doubt-
14
EARLY HEBREW LIFE
CU U
less to share in the blessings Moses promised to ob-
tain from the deity at Sinai. By their devotion they
made themselves the true body-guard of the leader
and “ministers” of the deity. In later days they
were the official ministrants in worship and govern-
ment.
Along with this body-guard must be mentioned two
names of supporters of the deliverer-one who led a
raid into the south of Palestine and one who led the
final raid from the east and across the Jordan. It is
remarkable that each of these bore what we may call
a totem name: the former was called “Caleb," i.e.,
*Dog,” and the latter “Nun," i.e., Fish. It would
be interesting to know whether these leaders bore on
their rods, or spears, or standards, devices represent-
ing these animals, and whether they were really rep-
resentative men representing tribes that called them-
selves after animals, as American Indians still do.
This we know, that the early literature represents the
primitive days of life as having animals who could
speak. The serpent was said to have played an im-
portant part in the rise of men onward in the dawn of
moral maturity. It is also notable that the hero who
founded a lasting monarchy is regarded by late writ-
ers? as having belonged to a “Serpent” (Nachash)
clan of the east Jordan region; but the story of Nabal
makes it much more likely that he was related to the
“Dog” clan. The “Serpent” clan seems to have
been unfriendly to the Hebrews. It is valuable to
keep in mind the many hints of these faiths current
among the early Hebrews: they are part of the peo-
See Ruth iv. 20.
(0
THE NEW NOMADIC LIFE
15
ple's religion. Since the bitterest enemies of the
settled Hebrews were the Philistines, worshippers of
a fish-god, it is not unlikely that the Elohistic nar-
rator claimed that Joshua, who led the final invasion,
was really favoured by the Philistines' own god, and
was a son of that god, a real member of the “Fish
People."
One more feature of the nomad times is to be
noted, viz. : the Balaam episode (Num. xxii. f.). This
must have been an effort made by eastern sheikhs to
hinder the wanderers in their march and purposes by.
having curses pronounced over them. Tradition
varies much concerning the manner of the cursing
that was tried. It is evident, that the cursers were
themselves Yahweh-worshippers, just like the He-
brews, and that the religious regard of one set of
Yahweh-worshippers for another was too strong to
allow any serious cursing at all.
CHAPTER III
THE SETTLEMENT
THE story of the Settlement in Palestine and
the acceptance of agricultural life is one of long and
bloody raids, cruelties, and oppressions by the He-
brews, of reprisals by the slowly enfeebled earlier
inhabitants, of incorporation of these among the va-
rious Hebrew communities. Chief among all these
experiences is, for our purposes, the steady tendency
toward unity, and the sense that this course was
right. It is significant that an early poetical record,
which was perhaps something like the Homeric Epic,
and which was so well-known and so honoured that ex-
tracts were made from it by the early Yahwistic school,
was entitled “The Straightforward Man's Record.” 1
The same school tells how in all these ages of the
nascent settlements men were trying to be just; but
there was no common standard of straightforward-
ness, and each man followed his own individual
mind.?
There were many attempts to secure unity by the
election of one king over all, but one after another
these projects failed, until at last one man succeeded
and the great dynasty was founded which was be-
lieved to be after Yahweh's own mind, and which all
16 Book of Jasher,” vid. Joshua x. 13; 2 Sam. i. 18.
8 Judges xxi. 25.
10
THE SETTLEMENT
17
Hebrews so loved that it was called the Dynasty of
the “Beloved,” i.e., of “David.” This final and suc-
cessful movement must be dated about 1000 B.C., while
the long period of loose settlement and of nomadism
following the life in Goshen had lasted probably
since about 1400 B.C.
The progress up to this fairly high attainment
was a genuinely moral progress. It touched and in-
cluded many sides of society. This was, indeed, the
first permanent monarchy, and only then were the peo-
ple all well united under one government in common
regard for the benefit of the whole. But for a long
period there had been a system of judicial adminis-
tration, ordered by men of wisdom and godliness.
Such a man as Samuel had been acknowledged as
judge, magistrate, almost as ruler, by many districts
to whose centres he went in turn to hold a sort of cir-
cuit court. That this was possible tells much for the
quality of the people who submitted to his judgment.
They were united in brotherliness and in regard for
aims higher and wider than those of the individual
or the place. But it was also a mark of fairly high
moral nature that the people could produce such a
man. In short, we have here a proof that the He.
brews were seeking their highest good, with some
breadth of view and self-control.
Another sign of the social and moral level attained
is to be seen in the record that the art of healing was
practised in no mean way. A case of disturbed mind
is described, and we read that a man was at once
found who was wise in dealing with such a case, and
who undertook it with very fair result. It is also to
-
18
EARLY HEBREW LIFE
be noted that the skilful physician, or guide in psy-
chiatry, used music as his means of soothing and cure.
This shows that music was cultivated and finely prac-
tised.1
Society had, therefore, made some advance in cult-
ure. The articulations were well ordered; there was
a good care for men and things, and the use of force
to maintain order, or to glorify the body politic was
not neglected. The new monarch found it possible
to gather a body of devoted soldiers. Many of these
were, it is true, " discontents,” such as had wrongs
to fret them and to avenge; many others were for-
eigners from the coast or from beyond the sea, who
were not sufficiently attached to country and home
to prevent their incurring the risks of adventurers.
Yet both sorts of adventurous spirits were amenable
to the command of a skilful captain. This proves
the presence of at least a workable sense of the
pleasure of subordination.
See the “J” story of Saul and David.
CHAPTER IV
RELIGION AND MORALS
We may now proceed to sum up the moral and
theological condition of the Hebrews down to the
time of the Davidic Monarchy, about 1000 B.C.
i There was a deep sense of the reality of the Un-
seen. Men knew there was some spirit besides their
human selves. Certainly they regarded this Being
much as they regarded themselves, providing for him
such enjoyments, food and pleasures, as they had for
their human life.
They counted their deity's friendship most im-
portant, and were careful to have and to renew
agreements of helpfulness with him. By the same
means exactly, and at the same times that they cov-
enanted with him, they covenanted with each other.
Their common covenant with him was a covenant
with each other. We may say that their common
sense of the Unseen generated a moral relationship
to each other, a sense of regard for and duty toward
each other. Or, we may express the matter in the
opposite way, saying that in and by their strong sense
of duty to each other they recognised a Power pre-
vailing over their will and their life; their morality
generated a theology. It is probably best to say that
the two, morality and theology, arose in one and
grew together.
19
20
EARLY HEBREW LIFE
This sense of fellowship extended throughout the
tribe, but it comprehended other related tribes.
Yahweh-worship and the god Yahweh were tribal
matters indeed, but the tribe was great, and included,
over and above the Hebrews, several other peoples who
were treated more or less as fellow-worshippers and
relatives in religion.
It is difficult to be quite certain what was counted
as the main attribute of the divine character, but
very probably he was regarded as the rain-god, or
storm-god and, therefore, also the giver of life of
every kind. No particular moral excellence was at-
tributed to him. The kind of deity who thus owned
the rain and the fruitful land was called a “Baal,"
and Yahweh was long regarded as one of the
“Baalim.”
All through this period from Goshen to the Mon-
archy, Hebrew men were learning the value of one
another, and the consequent wisdom and duty of re-
gard for each other. Hence morality was arising from
the nature of the conditions attendant upon their
developing life.)
Methods of realising this value and regard were
coming steadily into practice. An ethic of the
court was arising. With the practice of healing, an
ethic for mind and body was arising; a culture of art
came about; and men were learning a regimental
discipline for purposes of order and control which is
the basis of an ethic of the State.
The idea of “The Straightforward” was born, and
it grew, especially in connection with song, as beauty
and right are always related kinds of harmony.
RELIGION AND MORALS
We have further justification for believing that
these features of morality and religion were growing
with much strength when, as we now pass on to
the following period, we find how deeply they were
already rooted.
PART II
THE EARLY NARRATIVE LITERATURE
900 TO 800 BC.
INTRODUCTORY
ANALYSIS OF DOCUMENTS
This volume is too small to furnish the full discus-
sion of the extant Hebrew texts and of the recon-
struction from them of their original sources, which
justifies the use we make of them for our present pur-
pose. But the minute study of the texts has gone so
far and the results are so fully published that we may
justifiably refer the enquirer to those studies. The
substance of the matter may be put briefly as we move
onward from one period to another.
The earliest of the works used in the composition
of the Hebrew narrative books from Genesis to Kings
was what is now called the Yahwistic Narrative, or
the Narratives of the Yahwistic School. We may
speak of this literature as that of a school, for at times
there are parallel, slightly varying, narratives of one
and the same matter. Here and there a supplemen-
tation has been added by some thinker of the same
date who felt that some additional point needed
treatment. But all agree in belonging to the pop-
ular epic literature in having no theological aim or
22
ANALYSIS OF DOCUMENTS
theory dominating their method and their matter,
in speaking of Yahweh as the Hebrew national
deity, and in their standpoint in time, for they
glorify the Davidic kingdom, its pre-suppositions
and its birth, and they bring the story down to the
end of the reign of David. Thus they are the prod-
uct of the age just following the foundation of that
monarchy and date from the reign of Solomon or
shortly thereafter. Therefore, one may study the
mind of this school on religious and moral questions
as one source of knowledge of the theology and ethics
of the period from about 900 to 800 B.C.
For the clear understanding of this school, it is
indispensable that their narrative be in the reader's
hands in restored original form, so far as that is pos-
sible. This restored original has been published.1
In Appendix I. we give an analytical outline in
which the numbers follow the paragraphs given by
the present writer in his work named above.
See Old Testament Theology, vol ii., by the present writer.
A. and C. Black, London, 1900. To a large extent also, namely,
as far as the end of the Desert Wandering or to Deut xxxiv., it is
given in Bacon's Genesis of Genesis, 1891, and his Triple Tradi-
tion of the Exodus, 1894. Student Publishing Co., Hartford, Conn.
CHAPTER I
THE RELIGION OF THE YAHWISTIC LITERATURE
THE Yahwists wrote to glorify the Davidic king-
dom. They were really political narrators. They
rejoiced in the rise and establishment of a national
union ; but that kingdom as a union of men and of
hitherto mutually jealous tribes was a more vital
fact in human progress than perhaps they realised.
It made them happy because it satisfied a deep
hunger of life. They said that their king was the
choice of their god and they were glad because of
that. Their king satisfied their ideal; and the most
powerful demand they knew was fulfilled when they
obeyed, as they believed, the supreme voice in crown-
ing David. The creation of this monarchy was to
them a religious act; and we, too, are fully justified
in seeking to see here an implicit theology, and in
saying that here our special quest discovers a central
fact.
They were clearly conscious that they were now
entering upon a higher moral level than they had
known before. At the close of the terrible tale of the
decimation of the Benjaminites, the Yahwistic writer
says in so many words that before there was a real
king every man did indeed what he counted right, but
' every man acted without any regard to the national
1 Judges xxl. 25.
24
RELIGION OF THE YAHWISTIC LITERATURE 25
good. The erection of a monarchy that was strong
and permanent, established a common sense of duty
and as a result conferred upon the people greater
worth and dignity. It gave them a wider horizon of
knowledge, of purpose and of pleasure. They knew
a larger righteousness, a larger duty and a larger
honour. The word Tashar, “straight in conduct,"
by which the writer in Judges described “rightness”
came now, under the monarchy, to mean a longer
line of reach and a broader line of inclusion.
This elevation of their conception of moral obliga-
tion strengthened their sense of kindred between
man and man, and between clan and clan. The sense
of kindred was always felt to be a religious thing.
When they aťe together the flesh of the sacred victim
for the purpose of making a covenant, this was at
once an entrance upon or renewal of a relation of kint
ship, and also a religious declaration. They ate be-
fore their god, and he took his share in the blood
poured on the dust, and in the savour of the ascend-
ing smoke. They linked themselves with him by
the same act which linked them with each other.
The same was true concerning all their festival meals.
Every relationship between men and men implied the
relationship of each and all to their god. And since he
was evidently the chief and lord of the related fami-
lies, clans, or tribes, any intensifying of the sense of
obligation involved an enlarging of the relation to
him. Evidently the Yahwists understood that the
establishment of the monarchy under David was a
distinct and large step in religious progress. Here
then, we see the first feature of the Yahwistic mind
26
THE EARLY NARRATIVE LITERATURE
concerning God: The foundation of the monarchy
was clearly a religious act, and an utterance of faith.
The following seem to be the chief elements of the
faith implied in the new unity realised in the estab-
lishment of the Dynasty that was the pleasure of
Yahweh.
They had risen to faith in the value of each indi-
vidual or each family, not now as an individual or as
a family, but as an integral or organic member of a
complete system of individuals and families.
They had risen to a new faith in the consequent
new value of a permanently organised and royally
administered state.
This meant, also, a new faith in the national deity
who had hitherto cared for and covenanted with each
Hebrew or Hebrew family, but who now showed his
interest in a kingdom, i.e., in an organised fellow-
ship of all Hebrews, governmentally related, royally
administered, and permanently established.
But this meant also the religious recognition of
new duties to the king, to the administration, to
fellow-subjects, and fellow-members of the organised
state: the faith was one that had demands to make.
There was in all this something of greater import
still: a new vision of spiritual relations. The horizon
was widened and larger value was ascribed to spir-
itual power in man.
A nation does not see, nor feel, nor believe; indi-
viduals do. The Yahwistic writer or writers of this
class of narrative had risen to these faiths and views
of duty; but these men were at least good representa-
tive Hebrews of their time. Therefore in this analysis
UUUU
RELIGION OF THE YAHWISTIC LITERATURE 27
of the faith of the Yahwistic writers we have been
discovering the real religion of the Hebrew people
of the Yahwistic times.
Another feature, however, of the more formal re-
ligion of the Yahwists must be noted and appreciated.
It has been remarked frequently by students of the
literature of the Yahwists that their narrative moves
along a line of sanctuaries; of these it seems there
were seven chief ones, into relation with which they
thought that their previous history had been brought.
Without some such external symbols religion would
not be human. When the Yahwists sing their great
joy, they do so by telling a story of the past, and that
story is one of a long pilgrimage from one sanctuary
to another. The kingdom was pleasing to Yahweh,
say they; and the road to it ran from one place of
meeting with him to another. Thus the Yahwistic
story is no mere book of national annals; it is a
book of religious faith. Therefore, to the five points
of their religion and faith laid down above, we may
add this: They have risen to a faith in fellowship
with Yahweh as the guiding factor throughout all
past ages, guiding the Hebrews ultimately to the
Davidic Monarchy.
They have risen to see the duty of carefully record-
ing this faith, and the story that embodies it. We
cannot say that there was no earlier literature; but
now the nation brought forth men who could con-
struct such an epic, and the nation now know how to
prize it and preserve it.
In order to define more exactly the level to which
the Yahwistic writers had attained, we may gather
28
THE EARLY NARRATIVE LITERATURE
together here the main features of the character of
Yahweh as he was conceived by these writers.
There is, of course, a good deal of anthropomor-
phism in all their thoughts of their god; the anthro-
pomorphism is a feature of their own mental habit,
reflecting itself in the character they saw in their god.
And yet the point of prime importance in that char-
acter is this: Yahweh so cared for them, that he fash-
ioned them at first with an inherent possibility of at-
taining to knowledge of the difference between good
and evil. Of less importance is the faith that this
knowledge would be realised through eating certain
food, or that it came only after sexual conscious-
ness awoke; or that other animal orders had some
mediating share in it; or that such maturity of knowl-
edge was also a premonition of death : all these are of
secondary theological and ethical interest. It is mo-
mentous to find these Yahwists clearly attributing to
Yahweh the creation of so high a human capacity,
and attributing further to him the creation in man
of a sense of unfitness, and a desire to hide himself,
when the difference between good and evil dawned
upon him. These features in the theology of the
Yahwists are surely a projection of their own new-
born consciousness upon the past. They had come
to regard Yahweh as the author of the sense of shame
and of over-awing ideals. Evidently they are them-
selves the originals of the awestruck souls who hid
themselves, as we read in the third chapter of Genesis.
Yahweh appeared to them, also, as establisher of
moral sanctions. He ordained that definite bless-
ings and curses should attend definite courses of con-
RELIGI
RELIGION OF THE YAHWISTIC LITERATURE 29
HWIST
LIT PRATITRE
1.
M
11
duct. The sense of shame, of awe, of inevitable
bending of conscience had dawned, and it was an
awful fact in life; but the Yahwists did not see that
that was enough for the moral government of the
world. The “categorical imperative” was not enough:
virtue was not its own reward under this new view of
Yahweh. He had still to use the other prizes and
payments, whips and stings of material reward and
punishment.
Again the channel of these blessings and curses was
to be divinely appointed persons, controlling the He-
brew nation as a whole. Hitherto, of course, the
faith had been that Yahweh cared to bless the people
as a loosely related tribe, or any family, or an indi-
vidual, according as these linked themselves to him
in the sacred feast. But now a higher feature has
emerged; for certain individuals or tribes of the
organised people have a function of blessing or curs-
ing, and so carrying out the sanctions and the aims
of Yahweh.
Yahweh is now regarded as having preferences for
this people, or for this or that man; as, for example,
an Abraham, a Joseph, a Moses, or a David, because
the character of these pleases him. He has now
more than the local preferences of old : the Yahwists
know that Yahweh has a certain love for persons for
the sake of their moral worth. It is to be observed,
however, that the morality thus preferred is by no
means the highest that has been known: it is, indeed,
far below our own standards.
Furthermore, a tenderness appears in the concep-
tion of Yahweh which rises to a remarkable height in
30
LITERATURE
THE THE ] NARRATIV
CARLY EARLY NARRATIVE the classic passage where the deliverer Moses is de-
scribed as receiving a special personal impression
concerning the nature of Yahweh. Moses is said to
have cried :
“O Yahweh, O Yahweh!
Ever compassionate and ever gracious deity;
Patient in anger, and abundant in loving kindness and
truth;
Preserving loving kindness to thousands,
Lifting away waywardness, transgression and fault!”
1
Comment could scarcely heighten the beauty of this
passage. It is indeed a little difficult to believe that
the passage dates actually from the days just after
David with all his blood-thirst. Yet, on the other
hand, it does look like the herald of such moral no-
bility as Amos had, such tenderness as Hosea breathed,
such majestic conceptions as Isaiah proclaimed. If
this passage be the product of the Yahwists, they fur-
nish evidence therein that a great advance was made
in Hebrew theology when they rose to their task of
narration.
Certain other features must be recorded which are
not exactly co-ordinate with those just named, al-
though related. They are marks not of the charac-
ter of Yahweh as these writers believed they saw it,
but rather of the purposes which they believed he
would unfold. They expected that the Davidic dy-
nasty so gladly established was to be permanent.
The closing words of the Yahwistic story in the
end of 1 Kings ii., see Analysis, 138, show that this
was the faith of these writers.
VUI
RELIGION OF THE YAHWISTIC LITERATURE 31
There is, however, a notable expression used in 2
Samuel vi., which shows that the Yahwists were gain-
ing a new conception of Yahweh's purposes as reach-
ing far beyond the rule over the Hebrews and their
land. We read that King David caused the ark to
be brought up from the Ba'alah of Judah, i.e., prob-
ably the old tribal capital, to Jerusalem, the king's
newly acquired fortress, which he wished to make the
capital of all the nation, and where also, of course, he
wished to have a sanctuary. The writer adds a little
archæological note, saying that Yahweh's name is :
“Yahweh of Sabaoth seated upon the cherubs.”
The closing words are peculiar, but the name Yahweh
of Sabaoth, 2.e., of Hosts, fixes their date. There is
certainly a possibility that the name is a late inser-
tion, and belongs to the time when such Psalms as
1xxx., xcix., and xviii. could be written. And yet the
term Yahweh of Hosts was used by Amos in 800-700
B.C. It is not, therefore, utterly impossible that it
was used in 900–800 B.C., when the Yahwists were
writing. But what would be the significance of it?
The qualification "seated upon the cherub” had its
origin in the idea that Yahweh was a storm-god who
travelled across the heavens on the wild-winged storm
clouds. The expression came to be applied to Yah-
weh as connected with the casket in which were the
sacred slabs brought from Sinai. Now we know that
the markings on the slabs were mysterious, for they
1 Professor Rahlfs argues in his treatise on uy and hy in den
Psalmen, Göttingen, 1892, that this derived application could not
arise until the casket was lost at the exile, about 600 B.C.
32
THE EARLY NARRATIVE LITERATURE
were interpreted in different ways while they were
still in existence. They seemed like hieroglyphs, and
what more likely than that there were cloudy col-
ourings among them, and that these had also some-
thing like an animal's shape. Probably the markings
looked like winged creatures such as we call griffins.
The Hebrew word "cherub” or “kroob” is the same.
These pictures were, so to speak, the seat on which
the divine companion of the wandering people was
ever resting. Since Yahweh was believed to be pres-
ent where the casket or shrine was, so he was said to
sit upon, abide upon, the cherubs. The idea may be
as old as these Davidic and Yahwistic times.
But, again, Yahweh is called in this passage
“ Yahweh of Hosts,” which means “He who is to es-
tablish hosts,” that is all powers. Thus the passage
before us, with its added archæological note, probably
expresses the Yahwistic faith that the Hebrew god,
Yahweh, whose casket was being brought by the king
to his new sanctuary was the superior of all the
Powers. The Yahwists linked to their conception of
the monarchy this belief that their god was, or was
to prove himself almighty, the Lord of Lords.
Just following this story of the casket, and the in-
terwoven ascription of all-power to Yahweh, the god
of David, we find records of campaigns wherein this
king subdued under his rule all Aram in the north
of Palestine, and all Edom in the east and southeast.
He was certainly becoming an overlord, which sig-
nified to men of those times that their god was the
over-Lord over the deities of the subdued peoples.
Cf. Cheyne's Origin of the Psalter, p. 323.
RELIGION OF THE YAHWISTIC LITERATURE 33
w
I
I
1
,
R
); <
This overlordship was one of the ideals of the Yah-
wistic writers, as we see also in their story of Abram,
in which the faith is recorded that Yahweh meant to
cause Abram's posterity to rule over all the territory
from the Nile to the Euphrates. The religious sig-
nificance of this faith is that the Yahwists were ris-
ing from belief in a mere tribal god to the conception
of one who controlled all powers. This is certainly
not perfect monotheism, but it is incipient mono-
theism. The Yahwistic writers had thus reached a
fairly high theological position. They dared to
think.
The Hebrew people were to prevail over the world
by the hand of the Davidic dynasty. It is not by
any means the largest possible view of divine gov-
ernment or even of the mission of a people : but it is
a great advance from pure tribalism, with its unset-
tlement, its fears, its quarrellings; and it is the herald
of the ideas of world-empire and then of a world-re-
ligion. The faith of the exilic writer in Isaiah xlix.
coming in the far distance is foreshadowed by the
religion of the Yahwists.
CHAPTER II
THE ETHICS OF THE YAHWISTIC SCHOOL
WHAT were the ethics of these Yahwists? We may
set down first this thesis: the Yahwist feels that
men are not good enough. He says this implicitly in
his story of the very first men. They rose to a sense
of the difference between right and wrong: and the
consequence was that at once they hid themselves.
They were conscious that they had sinned. But we
may set the same fact in another way, saying that
they were conscious of an ideal that was far above
them. They felt that they were very little; their god
very great in goodness. This means that they pos-
sessed a standard that was divinely high.
All along the chant of the story there seems to
play an accompaniment of mingled nobility and sad-
ness. The writers do not lecture their readers or
their people, as the Elohists do; nor do they define
duties and standards, nor pause at this story or that
to add, “See what a sin this was." Yet the reader
constantly feels that the Yahwists are honestly ac-
knowledging the evil deeds of the people and of the
greatest men among them.
Let us be more particular. What deeds do they
thus silently regret and condemn? They are :
Want of reverent submission to Yahweh, such as
Adam, Eve, and the serpent (Nahash) showed in
Eden;
34
THE ETHICS OF THE YAHWISTIC SCHOOL
35
The selfishness of a worshipper like Cain, which
could turn into blood-feud,
The low drunkenness of Noah and Lot, and the
base treatment of it by Canaan and the daughters of
Lot;
The unmanliness toward woman that Abram and
his fellow-townsmen, and Lot and Reuben and Judah
were guilty of;
The small-hearted ways of Isaac;
The tricks and deceits practised by Isaac, Rebecca,
and Jacob;
The cruelty of the men of Sodom, of Simeon and
Levi, of the ten brothers toward Joseph and their
aged father, of Pharaoh toward all the Hebrews, of
Balaam to his ass, of Joshua to Bezek, as of Bezek
to many others. So also the savage methods of
Gideon, Abimelech, Samson, the Benjaminites, and
especially of Saul and of David, of Abner and Joab,
as well as of many less noted persons;
The unfaithfulness found in Jacob toward Esau
and toward Laban, while Jacob accused Laban of the
like conduct; so also the unfaithfulness of all the
nomad people to their leader.
We may justly say that fairly high ideals were
cherished by the Yahwistic writers when they con-
demned these deeds. They must have had a positive
theory of goodness as opposed to such conduct. We
may formulate their moral standard thus :
They loved reverence toward deity, and to leaders,
to tribal solidity, to woman, and to human life. They
prized generosity toward opponents, whether sepa-
rated by religion or by nationality. They honoured
36
THE EARLY NARRATIVE LITERATURE
chastity. They believed in truthfulness and in
honesty.
These are not mere indirect conclusions. The story
exalts high character, for there are several persons
described specially as noble examples of goodness.
Some are so described, although the same persons are
also condemned when they fall short. So Abram is
an example of reverence. Moses is a model of brave
patience, and of devotion to his people, his caravan
of feeble and ill-conditioned wanderers. How gen-
erously he is made to plead for them. And how
great souled is his argument: “Not for my sake, nor
for their sake, O Yahweh; but that thy undoubted
power may appear to all nations!” How manly is
his scorn for the imputation that he could ever be self-
ish! The Yahwistic story does not accuse Moses of
any misconduct as the reason why he was not allowed
to enter Canaan. It is the later interpreters who
suggest that. The Yahwists simply say that his life-
task was all nomadic, and he died ere it was ended.
The picture and the ideal are the record of a high
conception of duty and character. Such was the con-
ception of the Yahwists. Joseph's character is an-
other fine record of this ideal, both in the picture of
him when in prison and so worthily trusted with over-
sight, and when in power generously forgiving his
brothers, and when skilfully caring for the famine-
stricken Egyptian nation. The conception given of
his brother Judah pleading for a younger brother and
the old father is fairly worthy to stand beside the pict-
ure of Joseph. Caleb is a noble, wise helper of the
leader. Even Balaam, in our story, shows devotion
THE ETHICS OF THE YAHWISTIC SCHOOL
37
to a high conception of his deity. Jonathan is beau-
tifully worthy of all the love that David can express
for him. David himself, king, statesman, physician,
harpist, warrior, has many high traits, although he
can be so cruel. There are not a few side lights
that are minor in importance only because not prom-
inent. Quite worthy of our authors are the glimpses
we get of them in their little sketches of Shem and
Japheth, and even of the ventriloquist woman who
fed poor Saul.
But the grandest conception of these Yahwists re-
mains that picture of Yahweh as manifest to Moses,
which is already mentioned above. There we set it
forth as a feature in their theology : here we must
point to it again as a signal utterance of their own
moral quality. That idea of Yahweh is the Yahwistic
ideal of goodness. It is as if they said “The highest
possible character we can know must be ever com-
passionate, ever gracious, patient, loving, and forgiv-
ing even to thousands of offenders.” Thoughts such
as these of the Yahwists imply a noble code of ethics
for that age, say 900 B.C. Thus we are led at once to
a study of the age of Great Moral Preachers, which
followed.
PART III
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
800 TO 700 B.C.
INTRODUCTORY
THE material with which we build is a series of
sermons, brief oracles or longer discourses. It is,
therefore, best to begin by describing and analysing
them. We shall thus gain a clearer vision of the
times, the people, and the preachers. Much textual
study and critical adjustment must be taken for
granted.
After examination of each of the four writers or
preachers, we shall summarise their views on the
various points that interest them, and then examine
how these are connected vitally with the conditions
which we have just seen in our study of the Yahwistic
writers.
1 Vide Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament, by
Professor S. R. Driver, 7th edition, 1897, T. & T. Clark. Add
the Commentaries there named: Die Kleinen Propheten, Ueber.
setzung mit Anmerkungen, J. Wellbausen, 1892. Duhm : Theo.
logie d. Propheten, 1875 ; Das Buch lesaia, 1892. Cheyne :
Polychrome Isaiah, 1897; Prophecies of Isaiah, 2 vols., 1880.
Professor G. A. Smith: The Twelve (Lesser Prophets), 1895.
Also the Histories of Israel or of Hebrew Religion by Kittel, Well.
hausen, Smend, Stade, Winckler, and the present writer, may be
studied.
CHAPTER I
THE PREACHING OF AMOS
The Herdsman of Tekoa, and Prophet in Samaria,
about 750 B.C.
Wu.
As we take in our hands the book or little tract
called Amos, there rises in mind a scene that occurred
more than twenty-six hundred years ago.
It is evening on the open market-place of a royal
city and sanctuary in the kingdom of Israel. The
kingdom is small : it has some 60,000 hereditary
owners of farm lands, and therefore the whole popu-
lation may be half a million. Their whole country
is about 100 miles in length from south to north by
75 miles in breadth from the Mediterranean coast
eastward. But this little people was nearly the
whole of the Hebrew tribe that believed in the tribal
god Yahweh, their fellow-tribesman, father, mighty
protector.
The folk were comfortable and happy and had been
so for many a day under their king, Jeroboam II.
There was food and raiment and rest for man and
beast, and the people were multiplying. There was
a good import trade of cattle and fruits into this
royal city from the southern sister land of Judah,
which was about a quarter of the size of Israel.
It is evening on that market-square in the fair
39
40
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
city that crowned a goodly hill and rose far above the
plains and vineyards on the hillsides. As we watch,
the level rays of sunset are striking across the pin-
nacles and house-tops, and the market-square is grow-
ing dusk within its wide boundary walls. The camp-
fires begin to fling their beams and shadows across
the gathered herds. The shepherds and merchants
from afar, after the day of busy traffic, are all quieting
for rest. Suddenly, there sounds a voice above all
others. It is a solemn, startling cry, full of stern con-
demnation and warning. There is manly reasoning,
too, and a singularly high ideal and theory quaintly
touched with the dreamy ways and fantastic fancies
of the time. What is it all about? Who is he?
And who his hearers, and what his sermon? We
shall see presently what he preached and that will tell
us best what the preacher was and what the character
of his hearers.
But first of all we must gather a few of the features
of the times from the general history of the people
as that has been read in Hebrew literature as a whole,
and also in the literature of neighbouring peoples.
Especially must we go to Assyria, the imperial nation
which so often invaded and subjugated the Hebrew
lands, and which besides recorded its deeds and think-
ing on the clay tablets of its great libraries. These
we are now able to see and read, to our amazement,
exactly as they were written so long ago. This As-
syrian literature is but newly discovered, but while we
possess almost no Hebrew document that is more than
1,000 years old, these Assyrian MSS. are as old as the
times they speak of. Some are as old as Amos him-
UL.
THE PREACHING OF AMOS
41
self, the prophet of 2,600 years ago, and none of them
were written later than 600 B.C.
These various sources and reports bring us into
trouble at once when we compare them. For we
find that during this century, or from the beginning
of it in 800 B.C. down to the fall of Samaria in 722,
the Hebrew writers would have us believe that the
sum of the reigns of the kings of Judah was twenty
years greater than that of the kings of Israel. Again,
the kings of Israel, according to the Hebrew stories,
reigned twenty years longer than the Assyrian docu-
ments say they did. The Assyrians are more likely
to be correct, for the reason that their MSS. have
lain untouched, unaltered for all these ages; and
that they kept a very strict calendar. They recorded
their dates and we can test these by the mention they
make of eclipses, notably of a great one which fell in
the year 763. Guided, then, by the best comparative
use of these sources, we can draw out the table of
dates given here upon our chart.
But now pause a moment at that eclipse in 763.
That was a great era for all the world, as it would be
an alarming event for all the East. We remember
the important events :
The Greeks reckoned their dates by Olympiads
which they began to count in 776 B.C. So the Greeks
began to think with exactness about this time.
The Romans counted their dates from the Found-
ing of the City in 753 B.C. : therefore, they too began
IG. Smith's Eponym Canons (Bagster, London, 1875) gives the
astronomical details of this Eclipse, calculated by Mr. Airy, As-
tronomer Royal.

FOREIGNERS.
Shalmaneser II.
Rammannirari III.
Shalmaneser III.
Jeroboam II.
The first Olympiad began.
Asur-dan III.
Great eclipse visible over the Orient and mentioned in Assyrian Eponym Canon.
419720$.
Rome, A.U.C.
Asur-nirari.
Tiglathpileser III.
Zacharia.
Syria subdued.
Micah.....
Shalmaneser IV.
Siege of Samaria
Sargon II.
Sargon defeated in Babylon;
victorious at Raphia.
Philistia subdued.
Babylon subdued.
SOME CHIEF HEBREW EVENTS WITH PROBABLE DATES.
KINGS or
JUDAH
ISRAEL.
PROPHETS.
1017. David.........
937. Rehoboam ...
David.
Jeroboam.
Omri .......
Abab....
$89.........
877..
Elijah.
Elisha.
.................
Jehu....
842. Q. Athaliah....
800...
787, Uzziah. .
..........................
.......................
781
776
772
763.
760.
753..
...................
............................
.........................
745......
740...
110.....................
Hosea.
Shallum.
Menahem.
Pekabiah
Isaiah.
Pekah.
Hosea.
and of
Tyre.
Fall of Samaria
under
737. Jotham....
1735. Ahaz.....
............
733.
1932.
727.
725.
1722..
720...
715. Hezekiah,
................
710...
05..........
703-1...
. Hezekiah's alliance against Assyria.
.. Defeated and subjugated at Eltekeh and Jerusalem.
THE PREACHING OF AMOS
43
to see themselves in these years and to count their
power.
A greater birth of thought burst forth in the little
Hebrew sister lands at this very time. About 760
Amos preached in Samaria, or “ Beth-El,” and in 740
Hosea also began there. In 737 Isaiah preached in
Jerusalem. What a galaxy of light in the middle of
that eighth century !
Just at this time Assyria was putting forth from
its capital, Nineveh, a more vigorous and relentless
effort for world empire than ever before. About the
year 800 B.C. the Assyrian Rammannirari III. subdued
all Western Syria, and especially Damascus; and also
touched Israel slightly. Damascus had been the
special troubler of Samaria, therefore the kingdom of
Israel was, to some extent, freed from that burden.
The next Assyrian kings (Shalmaneser III., 782–772,
and Asurdan III., 772–753) hit Damascus harder
still, perhaps meaning thus to open up thoroughly
their way toward the west and south. All this
allowed Jeroboam II. to reign from 781-740 in com-
parative freedom while acknowledging, perhaps, the
suzerainty of Assyria in some easy way. So the first
half of this century, or about 800–740, was a period
of prosperity in Israel and also in Judah.
Experience of such times in history, and notably
experience in these days of our own bids us expect
just the moral condition that we find common in the
time of Amos. In the midst of the comforts, suc-
cesses, freedom and wealth of Jeroboam's reign there
arose some of the hardest economical problems.
See Kittel, History of Israel, ii., 250.
LU
44
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
There grew up great monopolies of land, and cruelties
toward the landless. There was nothing that could
not be bought and sold. Gain must be got at all costs.
Religion and worship grew to be largely a self-grati-
fication. The sacred feasts described above as solemn
means of tribal and religious fellowship, became revell-
ings where the strongest got most and paid least.
Drunkenness, gluttony, violence, impurity grew in
the midst of religious exercises. The worst feature in
our eyes was the unchastity. It had a peculiarly re-
ligious origin and grew to be fairly devilish. There
were modest souls who had high ideals and noble long-
ings; but these were pushed to the wall. The meek
and the feeble were crushed.
The Utterances of Amos.
Now we shall open the book itself. We have been
presupposing a study of it in the last few sentences.
It is probable that Amos wrote out his sermons, as
we have them, after they had been preached. The
steady correctness and good style of the utterances
favour this opinion. It is quite possible, however,
that he wrote down a MS. of them soon after he
returned to his southern pastures, and perhaps he
himself carried this back to Samaria to be read again.
Some one possessed a copy there doubtless, and so
Hosea might come to know the utterances and to use
them. In part he controverted them.
It is possible to detect a few marginal notes or
glosses which have found their way into the text of
Amos, and we shall omit these in making our analy.
THE UTTERANCES OF AMOS
45
sis. But on the whole the book is singularly free
from such alterations.
The book properly begins at ii. 6, where the ser-
mons to Israel open, but the previous section, i. 1-
ii. 3, is probably Amos's own preface to the whole.
The first words are, “It is from Zion that Yahweh is
going to roar, and from Jerusalem.” The writer is
a man of Judah. And we may suppose that he could
hardly speak these things aloud in Samaria.
Then he arranges wonderfully a plea for a hearing
from Israel. He counts the surrounding peoples in
regular order, thus, northeast, southwest, northwest,
southeast, and east; then he declares that they have
each done wrongs upon wrongs and therefore Yahweh
will scourge them. The list of wrongs cited gives
Amos's own picture of the state of morals he saw about
him. The wrongs are cruel invasions of one people
by another; slave-hunting by one tribe, even among
a neighbour people related to them by blood; implac-
able hatreds; brutal grasping of land ; sacrilege and
irreverence. Such practices were common. It was
not formal slips, or ceremonial defects that Amos saw
and struck at. He concludes each charge with a warn-
ing that is not quite definite,-perhaps he dare not be
definite—but which seems to say, “The Assyrian De-
stroyer is coming. Yahweh is leading him hither.”
And now he turns to Israel (the Judah passage is
a gloss) and he cries, “I have condemned your
neighbours, now I turn upon you; you too have added
wrong on wrong.” Here begins a second section ii.
6–16. In this the indictment is more pointed. It
charges the Israelites with silencing the righteous
46
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
and robbing the unresisting poor of their few rods of
ground. Human sympathy is quenched in greed
that pants even after the handful of dust the mourner
throws upon his head. Men violate hapless girls
and plunder such as bring to temples their little
gifts of garments, or choice food, as tokens of their
desire to atone for sin. They mock and mulct the
taxpayers. In cruelty they exercise their strength
and fear no retaliation.
But worse than this, they did these wrongs at the
house of worship and at the feasts, when all were
supposed to eat together with Yahweh in mutual trust
and happiness. They acted as if Yahweh liked their
ways, as if their character were his. But all the
time over against their cruelty to the poor stood his
kindness, to which they were constant witnesses. In
their long desert wanderings he had provided them
with food, and in spite of powerful enemies he had
given them possession of their present homes. But
he has given them still higher gifts ; his revelations
and inspirations, through his representatives the
prophets. Yet by efforts to silence the prophets they
had tried to silence Yahweh their god, who was
ruler of hosts, and who loved them as his own. What
was sure to follow ? They should surely be crushed;
the fugitives should barely escape, clothed in their
own nakedness.
The third oracle, iii. 1-8, has a formal opening
which is thenceforward often used : “Hear ye
this.” And now we have certainly one of those cries
by the evening camp-fire, or uttered to noonday
crowds.
THE UTTERANCES OF AMOS
47
Amos here claims a right to speak to them in Yah-
weh's name; for they claim to be his, and that he
and they are one in all joys, dangers, and aims. And
surely they who are one must agree in their thoughts
and plans; therefore, it is time they gave heed to his
mind and his purpose. Do any say there is no occa-
sion for alarm ? Look at the cloud on yonder hori-
zon! Hark to the lion's roar from the slopes of
Lebanon! Who causes that? Does not Yahweh
cause all things, as we believe? There must be a .
cause for the lion's roar, so too for the tread of ap-
proaching armies, for the troubled faces and paled
cheeks in their midst. Do they laugh at him as a
fanatical alarmist? Do they not all believe that
Yahweh talks with his servants, the prophets? Aye,
that whisper of his can be heard by any sensible
man who will but hearken. The prophet is not re-
sponsible for his alarming words. “The Lord God
hath spoken, who can but prophesy ? ”
The fourth oracle, iii. 9-iv. 3, is the sentence of
Yahweh upon Israel. But there is now a notable ad-
dition. Outsiders are able as well as Israelites to ap-
preciate its matter. Amos cries it aloud. From Sa-
maria's hilltop to the Philistine coast he sends it. It
is to run to all men far down the great caravan road,
even to Egypt. He summons foreigners to witness
the tragedy of sin and its doom. “Lo! come, judge
ye, and see this people's god inspecting them and
destroying them !” From highest luxury they shall
fall to uttermost extremity. They are lolling on
ivory couches; they shall hang like a torn shred from
the fangs of a ravenous wolf. Do the men of Israel
V
48
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
retort, “ What have foreigners to do with this? Why
add such publication of disgrace to the pains thou
promisest? What have Philistia and Egypt to do
with us, that they should come to look and laugh ?”
Amos replies that their god, Yahweh, is the ruler and
god of all peoples. He is Lord of Hosts, and the day
of declaration of his overlordship is at hand. Here
is the first plain declaration that Yahweh is overlord.
The belief is just awakening. We saw an early sugges-
tion of it in the Yahwist's story of David. This faith
is to grow by and by to a clear vision that there is
only one great First Cause. This is the beginning
of the preaching of a monotheistic conception. It is
important to notice that this doctrine arises together
with a faith that Yahweh is a righteous god. The
god of Amos, who insists on goodness, is the god who
has all power over all. Such are our prophet's grand
corner-stones. The stream of his denunciation rushes
on to its keenest bitterness as he declares that the
women who ought to breathe out tenderness are the
instigators to crimes and sharers in drunken orgies.
The apparent worshippers, also, at the temples and
the sacrificial tables go thither through greed of eating
and drinking. The seemingly tender and reverent
are harpies and gluttons. Selfishness is everywhere
triumphant.
Chapter iv. 4-13 constitutes a fifth section. The
selfish talk as if Yahweh were at their gluttonous
feasts in the temples at Gilgal, at Bethel, at Beer-
sheba ; but they know themselves that that claim is
false. Amos holds indeed that their god is always
present. They remember surely, that famine just
THE UTTERANCES OF AMOS
past; it was Yahweh who wrought that. It was his
present finger that destroyed the bread. They re-
member that recent drought. It was he who dried
up the springs. They remember the plagues, the
fevers, and the sores they have suffered from. It
was he who inflicted these. That pestilence in their
army was his work. He smote the young flower of
the troops and the horses that they died. That earth-
quake! He did that: he stamped his foot, he trod
upon the hilltops. He came seeking worshippers
in the high places where his altars stand, but in
anger at the evil he shook hills and land and over-
turned their cities. And yet they have not seen him.
Neither have they bowed in fear, nor returned from
forsaking Yahweh. Now Amos reaches one of his
finest heights. He speaks with manly pleading. He
does not denounce, or pronounce the expected sen-
tence, but he pleads with them to face Yahweh in all
these things, to look and see, and then they will bow
before him and shall become truly his people.
The sixth section v. 1-15 is the climax of all the
oracles. This highest and centrally characteristic
utterance of the man is almost sublime in conception.
We may best catch its significance by regarding it as
a sort of dialogue between Amos and his audience.
He cries, “Ye die : scarce a tenth shall remain
alive.”
They reply, “Tell us, then, what to do.”
He answers, “Seek Yahweh the creator, the life-
giver, seek him and ye shall find life.”
' It has been suspected that this passage is not from Amos: but a
full vieir of his thinking rather justifies its genuineness.
50
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
“Yes, come,” say they, “let us hasten to the sanc-
tuaries.”
“No, no,” cries he. "Seek not these; not Bethel,
not Gilgal. Seek not temples; seek Yahweh and
live!” .
They ask, astonished: “Is he not there?"
Amos answers, “No! for you pervert the truth,
deceive the honest, destroy the righteous, kill the re-
former. Yahweh will not be seen among you."
Now they are angry, but Amos cries the more
plainly: “All that is good is assailed by you. You
rob and are luxurious; you revel in wrong. You
fight against the just and against all justice, and even
against the courts of justice. Good flies from you,
therefore, good men hide from you, and Yahweh goes
with the good!” As they tremble, he says, “ You
see the only way to Yahweh. Find Good, and ye
shall find Yahweh and his presence shall bring you
life.” This is remarkable. Here is the first writing
prophet, and his kernel thought is that Yahweh cares
first for goodness and always for goodness. The su-
preme god and life-giver abides where goodness is.
The next section, ch. v. 16-vi. 14, is a twofold cry
of woe to those who clamour for “ Yahweh's Day."
Yahweh, it is true, is not in the sanctuaries; but his
Day will come, when his way shall prevail and all
things be righted. Here we have the first appear-
ance of a belief in a coming Day of Judgment, or
at least the germ of that belief. Amos answers :
that day will be a day of blessing to the good only;
but ye are not good. Let righteousness flow as a
mighty stream ; then shall there be bliss : but the
THE UTTERANCES OF AMOS
51
false and hypocrites shall be flung out of the land,
far away from all that Yahweh loves and can bless.
Here emerges the idea that to leave the land and soil
of Yahweh is to be separated from Yahweh's pur-
pose and power to bless.
Now Amos turns to another and an opposite class.
“Woe also to them who laugh at these and say:
"Oh, no, let not the day of Yahweh come!'” They
count religion a gloomy thing and Amos a gloomy
man. The princes of Samaria and those of Jerusalem,
too, say that all is well if they only keep up the
pational forms of worship. Are they not all comfort-
able in mind and estate? They wish to hear no
more of the complaints of this troubler. How shall
the prophet meet this sort of ungodliness ? He racks
his soul for argument. Then in agony of mind he
cries: “Yahweh takes oath by himself-what can be
sure, if this be not! Yahweh swears that as surely
as there is a god, so surely shall all this godless ease
go down in ruin.” He paints a fearful picture of
a plague. The dead cart will roll through the de-
serted streets until every voice is still in death, or
hushed in terror lest any utterance of Yahweh's name
may wake again his avenging wrath.
Section vii. 1-viii. 3.' Amos sees in vision the gra-
cious Yahweh answering prayer, granting forgiveness
and averting famine and a great fire. But at last the
grace of Yahweh is declared exhausted: there can
be no more forgiveness for Israel.
At this point the great priest, Amaziah, interferes.
“Out with the puritan prophet from King Jeroboam's
kingdom! Let him away to the southern despised
52
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
Judah to preach there, if so he thinks to gain pence
and bread from the folk he frightens.” This manner
of accusation is thus ancient as well as modern.
The reply of Amos is so awful in its cursing, that we
dare scarcely describe it. The foundation of it is
however confidence in the man's soul that he has had
personal fellowship with god. He feels he has no
formal or hereditary prerogative. He knows only
that his soul is moved, beyond all power of resist-
ance, to condemn the wrongs. That moving is to
him Yahweh's moving. The reply shows once more,
also, how Amos counts Hebrew soil as the only place
where life can be really clean, godly, and happy.
The prophet now hastens on to another picture of
Yahweh's revelation, a vision of judgment to come.
Even the temples of Yahweh shall be smitten to
ruin.
The last section of oracles runs from viii. 4-ix. 10,1
and is a summary recapitulation of all we have al-
ready heard ; a cry of indignation at the suffering of
the feeble and the landless, a threat that there shall
be an eclipse, a prediction also that there shall be
floods and fierce plagues; and amid all this there
shall be a wailing reminding men of the story of
Egypt's loss of its first-born. Yet the worst suffering
shall be hunger for an oracle. The prophet's voice
shall be heard no more speaking in the name of Yah-
weh, neither in this royal city nor in the sanctuaries,
from the farthest north at Dan to the farthest south
The remaining verses are evidently a post-exılıc appendix.
? This very significant mention of an eclipse is one reason why
we are led to think that Amos lived and spoke about 760 B.C.
THE UTTERANCES OF AMOS
53
at Beersheba. The warning draws to an end with the
oracle that there can be no escape at all from Yah-
weh's stroke, either in earth or sea or in the dark re-
gion below where the dead lie hidden, silent but con-
scious of their awful lot. Such conception of a dark
abode of the dead, and the belief in the continuance
of ghostly life there were, therefore, quite current in
the time of Amos and his hearers.
And now we start, almost with horror, at his last
words. We may call them the gospel of Amos, for
they tell us how he thought the world was to be made
clean from all sin. He writes: “All the sinners of my
people shall die by the sword.” A terrible gospel ;
yet how firm is the faith in coming cleanness every-
where.
Such are the oracles of Amos. We shall gather
their great faiths in summary when we have analysed
the other great prophets who followed immediately
after him. But we may point out here that in one
sense Amos was the greatest of the four-greater than
even Isaiah-for he led the way. He rose as the
first to deny in writing the national doctrine of sac-
rifices and sanctuaries. First and alone he faced peo-
ple, princes, and priest with inflexible demands for
reform.
CHAPTER II
THE PROPHET HOSEA
740 TO 720 B.C.
AMOS preached amid the successful days of King
Jeroboam II. of the north and of King Uzziah of the
southern State. Jeroboam died probably in the
year 740 B.C. : then at once began a long succession
of political revolutions.
We read of the frequent changing of kings in Ho-
sea's prophecies. E.g., in
vii. 7, “All their kings have fallen."
viii. 4, “They make kings."
X. 3, “We have no king."
xiii. 10, “Where is thy king?” “We have no king."
So, too, the book tells of frequent appeals to the
court of Assyria for help. E.g., in
v. 13, “Ephraim went to Assyria";
vii. 11, “Ephraim goes to Assyria";
viii. 9, “ They went off to Assyria”;
xiv. 4, “They will say "Assyria is not going to help us.'”
The story in 2 Kings xv. 19 records that “Pul (i.e.,
Tiglath-pileser III., 745-727 B.C.), king of Assyria,
came against the land ... and Menahem (king
of Israel) gave Pul a thousand talents of silver
(£375,000 = $1,875,000)... to confirm the king-
54
THE PROPHET HOSEA
55
dom in his hands.” In the Assyrian records we read
that Tiglath-pileser in the eighth year of his reign,
i.e., in 738 B.C., "took tribute of Menahem of Sama-
ria and of Hiram of Tyre and of Rezin of Damas-
cus.”
From these statements we have sufficient evidence
that those were troubled times. Hosea's frequent
notes of these anarchic conditions as given above—and
we shall find many more of them-suggest that he was
intimately acquainted with governmental affairs. Ho-
sea was a man of the court, and in this respect, as in
others, was very different from Amos. The story of
those revolutions and regicides, of terrors at the court
and sufferings in the whole country, is somewhat as
follows:
Jeroboam II. died in 740 B.C., after a long and
comfortable reign ; his son Zachariah succeeded him.1
But this son ruled only six months. He was murdered
by one Shallum, who hatched a conspiracy and procured
a fellow called Qobolam? to assassinate Zachariah.
Hosea must have known all about this horrid deed, and
he saw this Shallum made king in Samaria. There is
good reason for thinking that the Egyptian court had
something to do with this conspiracy. We shall soon
see how thoroughly they were plotting to wrest Pales-
tine to themselves from the overlordship of Assyria.
Jeroboam II. had evidently been a faithful ally or
even vassal of Assyria, and probably there was an ill-
natured party always stirring up dislike of Assyria
1 See 2 Kings xv. 8, 10.
? A. V. and R. V. ascribe the deed directly to Shallum, and trans-
late Qobolam - before the people.” 2 K. XV. 10.
56
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
LCUNI
and of Jeroboam because of his fealty. It was Jero-
boam's strength that had held this treachery in check ;
but under his son the mischief-makers succeeded, and
King Zachariah was assassinated. The writer of 2
Kings xv. believes that this usurpation was a judg-
ment on the royal house because of their ancestor
Jehu's usurpation of the throne, a hundred years be-
fore. We shall find that Hosea agrees with this opin-
ion; both writers expect judgment to fall on the
royal house for this sin. And yet Elisha, another
prophet who lived in Jehu's time, had directed this
very usurpation. The new king Shallum had, how-
ever, a powerful rival. Shallum lived in Samaria, the
capital city of the kingdom. But the town or fortress
of Tirzah had been the capital in earlier days; many
kings had reigned there before Samaria was built.
In Tirzah there was evidently a set of honourable peo-
ple, soldiers, one of whom was named Menahem, i.e.,
“the man who greatly compassionates.” He was
evidently from the east of Jordan, for he is called
“ben-Gadi," and he sometimes led about a troop of
Gileadites, i.e., of East Jordan men. This officer
learned of Shallum's deed of usurpation, and marched
at once on Samaria and overthrew him after one
month of his kingship. Menahem was himself at once
raised to the throne. A picture of these troubles is
drawn in Hosea vii.
By these movements the Assyrian party came
again into power. The Assyrian emperor knew how
to suck the blood of the strife-racked little nation.
We have heard above how he charged Menahem a
THE PROPHET HOSEA
57
for confirming him on his throne. Every farmer in
the little land had to pay $31, i.e., £6 4s. Farm-
ing was all the business of the people, either in vine-
culture, corn-growing, or cattle-raising. Since each
family was taxed this $31, there must have been
only 60,000 such families, or a population of 300,000.
This is counting five persons to a family; but even
with ten persons to a family, which is an extreme
average, there would be a population of only 600,000
in the whole country.
We can imagine the suffering such a tax would
cause. It would shorten the food of every worker
and weaken his strength; it would deprive him of
seed-corn and of water for irrigation which had
to be pumped or carried to the fields; the soil would
become less productive, the harvests feebler ; and one
year of weakened tillage would mean increased weak-
ness next year. Such revolutions and invasions and
tributes meant agrarian loss, then gloom, discontent,
more rebellion, and so further loss. All this explains
clearly Hosea's preaching in ch. ii., that Yahweh, their
own real ba'al, or god who fertilises and gives all
fruit, will take away the corn and the wine in their
season and will blow away the wool and flax.
There is a passage, ch. x. 5, that illustrates well
the trouble caused by the tribute. This says that the
inhabitants of Samaria are growing anxious about an
ox-like image. Now this image was their sanctuary.
Suppose we to-day were condemned to send away as
tribute our treasured works of religious art and sup-
pose these emblems were virtually the whole of our
sanctuaries! Do we wonder that those people la-
58
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
mented when they sent away the gold-topped, ox-head-
ed pillar against which they slew their victims for the
commensal feasts? We speak rather of communion
feasts to-day, but these are not unlike those. Every
one among people, priests, princes, prophets, and
Hosea too, were excited and lamenting when even
this bit of precious treasure was carried away to
Assyria, or perhaps to Egypt.)
Amid such troubles it is no wonder that Menahem's
reign was not very long. The unhappiness and dis-
content would become patriotic dissatisfaction with
the manager of the nation : they would say the As-
syrian patronage was too dearly bought. The pro-
Egyptian party would eagerly foment this discon-
tent and would do their best to produce popular
mutiny. They succeeded ere long.
But there was a nearer unfriendly people. A
record by Tiglath-pileser III. tells us in the Assyr-
ian's own words that, “Nineteen districts of the town
Hamath (i.e., the district of Syria) ... on the
sea ... which in their faithlessness made revolt
to Azrijahu, I added to the territory of Assyria."
Azrijahu is Uzziah-Azariah, king of Judah ; and
his court, under his son Jotham's regency, were an-
noying Assyria and were fomenting insurrection in
Syria. This defiance of Assyria by the little king-
dom of Judah must have seemed a taunt to Israel,
and a call to the anti-Assyrians in Samaria to revolt,
and even to depose their king Menahem, who was an
Assyrian dependent.
16 Muçur (Egypt) and its Arab King,” says Encyc. Bib. on the
name Jareb
THE PROPHET HOSEA
59
Hos ...US betw for any
After a brief rule, lasting from 740 to 737, Mena-
hem died a natural, but probably a premature death.
Read in illustration of the troubles he bore, Hos.
vii. 5. “On our king's royal day the princes were
sick with wine-fever. ... Like an oven was
their mind with cunning. Their rage slept all night,
but in the morning it burst out like a smouldering fire."
Menahem's son, Pekahiah, succeeded, but ruled two
years only. The revolutions were not ended yet.
Hosea shows us how the two great parties, pro-As-
syrian and pro-Egyptian, were cunningly carrying on
their coquetries and conspiracies, so ominous for any
country that is fated to be placed thus between two
strong imperial rivals. See Hos. vii. 11, “Ephraim
is like a simple, silly dove: they cry to the Egyptians,
they go to the Assyrians.” A conspiracy against
poor Pekahiah was not long in culminating. The
arch - conspirator was the king's own captain of
soldiery, his so-called “Third Man," by name Pekah,
one who had thus a title very like the king's own.
He was also called Ben-Remal-Yah. The king fell,
killed apparently in a broil close to the palace; and
with him fell also a faithful body-guard of fifty men
from East Jordan who had doubtless been family
retainers of King Menahem the Gadite and his son
in their old eastern home.
Pekah-ben-Remal-Yah took the government 735
B.C. He now showed still more fully his talent for
conspiracy, for he began the so-called Syro-Ephra-
imitic war against Judah and its King Ahaz.
Azariah and Jotham were gone. Ahaz became
king at the same time as Pekah, in 735. This prince
60
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
of Judah seems to have felt shy about keeping up
his grandfather's opposition to Assyria and to As-
syrian overlordship over Palestine. But Pekah had
won the throne because he was anti-Assyrian; so
he joined in a confederation with Syria against As-
syria and against the pro-Assyrian Ahaz of Judah.
Isaiah's contempt for this confederation is expressed
in Isa. viii., where the great prophet warns the men
of Judah not to join it. The conspiring kings,
Pekah of Samaria and Rezin of Damascus, had asked
Ahaz to join them and to fight against Assyria as
his grandfather had done. Ahaz wisely refused.
“Then," said they, “we will march on Jerusalem and
depose you and set Tobh-El (the deity's pleasure)
on the throne.” Hosea's book may contain some
references to these troubles, but there is nothing that
we can regard as such so definitely as we recognise
his mention of Menahem's conflicts. This suggests
that Hosea wrote before these events in Judah
734 B.C.
Ahaz went to Damascus to meet the Assyrian em-
peror Tiglath-pileser, carrying a large tribute to him ;
and soon after this Damascus fell before the As-
syrians. The fair Syrian city was harried again and
again between 734 and 732 B.C. Rezin, king of
Syria, was thus at length utterly silenced. Tiglath-
pileser ravaged all the northern districts of Palestine,
Galilee to the west and Gilead eastwards. Mean-
while Pekah, prince of Samaria, had grown so weak
that a conspiracy against him in the Assyrian interest
had speedy success. Perhaps the conspirators' aim
was to turn away Tiglath-pileser's anger: certainly
1
CU
THE PROPHET HOSEA
61
the city was saved from immediate ruin, while Pekah
was deposed. Strangely enough, we read that the
head of the new conspiracy was named Hosea. He
is also called “ben-El,” or “ben-Elah,” which means
either that he was a son of a god, i.e., a godly man,
or that he was of the family bearing the name “ Tere-
binth," and the latter name may mean the same as
ben-Beeri, i.e., “member of a family dwelling by a
well.” In either case Hosea the prince may have
been the same as Hosea the prophet. The prophet
Hosea was a man of the court as we have seen ; and
perhaps he was now moved by his own judgment,
and urged on by others to lay hold of the govern-
ment in the name of Yahweh. The writer of the
books of Kings, who is a man of Judah, gives a high
religious character to this king Hosea, and says that
he ruled in quietness, doubtless by acknowledging
Assyrian suzerainty, from 733 to 727. Then Tiglath-
pileser III. died and was succeeded in Assyrian rule
by Shalmaneser IV. This prince marched westward
and was duly honoured by king Hosea with large
presents, these being, no doubt, the tokens and
promise of a continuance to the new emperor of the
tribute paid to his predecessor.
Events on the Upper Nile or in Arabian muçur, now
left a southern prince So or Sewe ( Sabako ?)? free to
The author leans somewhat to the prevailing and traditional view
of the political relation between Israel and Egypt at this time. It
should, however, be stated tbat Hugo Winckler has advanced evi-
dence in his Article: Muçri, etc., which to several scholars, and to
myself, is conclusive against it. The o conspiracy” of 2 Kings xvii.,
4 f. was with the North Arabian land Muçri (not livrain-Egypt).
The So, or Sewe, spoken of is not Sabako, with whom he has been
62
TIIE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
turn again to plots in the Asiatic direction. He man-
aged to win the king Hosea so far that an Israelitish
embassy was sent to him. Hosea failed in that same
year to send his tribute to Nineveh. Perhaps he and
his half million people had not enough tribute for two
suzerains; not enough ravin for two wolves! 2 Kings
xvii. 3-6 tells us much about this and says: “The
king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hosea in that he
sent messengers to So, prince of Muçri, and did not
cause a gift to go up to the king of Assyria year by
year. So the king of Assyria shut him up and held
him as a prisoner in the house of detention.” When
we read immediately afterward that the Assyrians
then invaded Israel and besieged Samaria for three
years, we cannot help thinking that the king Hosea
must have been submitting to the Assyrian against
his people's will. We may conclude that Hosea did
not really rebel; but, while anxious to obey his
suzerain, he was helpless against the anti-Assyrian,
pro - Egyptian or “Southern ” party among the
people.
Hosea ended his life probably in a prison-house,
or in some sort of confinement in Nineveh. There he
must have heard how for three years his people were
able to resist Shalmaneser IV., who was not one of
the strongest of Assyrian monarchs. But when Shal-
maneser died in 722 B.C., his successor Sargon knew
commonly, though not without hesitation identified, but Sib’e, the
tartan of Piru, the King of Muçri. Philistia, Judah, Edom and
Moab, as we learn from an inscription of Sargon II., gave pres.
ents to this same Pir’u hoping to secure his co-operation against
the Assyrian king. -- (Craig.]
THE UTTERANCES OF HOSEA
63
how to end at once the long siege. He took the
city, destroyed it utterly, and ruined the northern
kingdom of Israel forever, carrying captive many of
its people and transplanting colonies of foreigners
into the utterly subjugated land. Such a terrible
end of his people, the people of Yahweh, must
have brought sadness over the last days of the tender
prophet, whether he were king or not, whose oracles
had always been full of faith that Yahweh would
spare and make Israel flourish as the vine, blossom
as the rose, and lift her head as the glorious cedars of
Lebanon. It will be seen, as we now proceed to read
the oracles, how essential to the understanding of
them is this view of his circumstances.
The Utterances of Hosea.
If the times were hard for the people to bear and
also difficult for us to unravel, Hosea's book is almost
a riddle to analyse into any orderly plan, or even to
translate fully into our own language. It has been
much more injured in its transmission than has the
book of Amos. Again and again passages occur in it
which the careful Hebraist must simply pass as un-
translatable. There are clearly, also, many passages
added by readers as marginal remarks, and incorpor-
ated later into the body of the text by careless copyists.
If Hosea, as king, was taken prisoner to Nineveh, when
his city and state were ruined, it is easy to suppose
that all we possess of his oracles must have been pre-
served with difficulty. He or a friend seems to have
written out carefully chapters i.-iii., and these we
64
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
can easily understand. But nearly the whole of
chapters iv.-xiv. seems like a collection of fragment-
ary and disconnected sayings preserved by memory
or from notes, made either before or after delivery by
the prophet, or possibly by some one else who heard
the discourse.
In spite of all these difficulties, analysis of all the
sayings is possible. Chapters iv.-ix. 7 are oracles of
direct condemnation, describing the wrongs done by
government and abetted by princes and priests. This
is followed by an apparent reference (ix. 8, 9) to the
laughter of some who heard him. They are amazed
by the seeming madness of this good “man of the
spirit," as they tauntingly call him.
In ch. ix. 10-xi. 6 follow a series of lessons from
the past, referring to pre-Egyptian and Egyptian
days, the Exodus, and the founding of the kingdom.
The Yahwist's story is implied as well known. The
close in ch. xi. 7-11 is an outburst of faith in the love
of Yahweh, which is far beyond all that their past
theories would lead them to expect. It is a cry of
uncontrollable yearning, and also of faith in Yahweh's
love and his salvation yet to come.
Next come in cc. xii. and xiii. pictures of the
everyday conduct of men, especially in merchanting;
with a final avalanche of condemnation and a sum-
mons to all the powers of evil to help in the destruc-
tion of the nation. This is closed by chapter xiv., or
at least vss. 1-9 much as were sections iv.-ix. 7 and
ix. 10-xi. 6. The words are another cry of tenderness
in the form of a moving plea by Yahweh, a peniten-
tial answer by the people, and then a gracious prom-
THE UTTERANCES OF HOSEA
65
ise of blessing, figured as delightful fertility in all
fruits and flowers and trees.
We may now look at the oracles in closer detail.
And first we analyse chaps. i.-iii.
The title is not from Hosea's hand; it makes mis-
takes about his date. The remainder of the chapter
brings us into the third great difficulty in the study
of Hosea, viz.: his personal experiences in his home.
The description of Hosea is given as if by another;
it may, however, have been written by himself descrip-
tively out of some degree of modesty. It is a sad story
twice retold in ii. and iii. Hosea's wife had been un-
faithful. He is a true Semite in his belief in abso-
lute Providence in all affairs.' Hosea, therefore, had
no doubt that Yahweh ordained and caused his troub-
led experience. Whether or not the events happened
as pictured, we need not inquire; Hosea sees that
this picture of a sad home might very adequately
be used for teaching purposes. The relation hitherto
held by Semites to be essential between a people
and its deity and its land was beginning to be dis-
trusted. Troubles were coming which, according to
the old faith, should never come. Some part of the
union of three partners, deity, people, land, was fail-
ing. The people were not getting due support from
the land. They were beginning to think that their
old deity was not so good a ba'al, or land owner
and fertiliser, as they needed. They would try an-
other one of the baals, or several others. The land,
so the picture puts it, would try another divine part-
1 Mohammed's Islamic doctrine of fate is only a logical utterance
of genuine Semitism.
66
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
ner. So the land is adulterous. And “the land”
is not so much an expression for “the people," as it
is really the same as the people; to a Semite they
were all one organic living whole.
But now observe a fair feature of Hebrew home-
life. They used to call their children by names
which were little sentences expressing the faith of
the parents. So Hosea gave each child a name that
was an oracle. The eldest lad is named Jezreel, i.e.,
“A god is to sow our fields ;” and the boy becomes
a perpetual prophecy of this faith. But further, the
name is the same as that of the very fertile region
where a hundred years before (in 842 B.C.) the prince
Jehu had destroyed his king. The name is intended
to recall that horrible deed and to awaken remorse
for it. For, says Hosea, it was murder, and our god
will avenge it. Strange but true that this prophet
preached a religious faith diametrically opposed to
that of a previous prophet as great as Elisha, who
had directed Jehu to slay, in Yahweh's name, king
Ahab's successor. Hosea's inspired opinion flatly
condemns that of the great Elisha. The second child of
Hosea is named Lo-Ruhamah, i.e., “ Utterly unpitied
one.” She is to be a constant suggestion that the pity
and kindness of Yahweh, given through men like
king Menahem, are all in vain. The next boy is Lo-
Ammi, “Not my people”; his name brings to men's
lips the sad cry: “We are not Yahweh's kinsmen!"
The theory of tribal relation between Israel and Yah-
weh is passing away. This will help us later on to
12 Kings ix. f.
Seconges. Ir. Smith's Re
2 See W. R. Smith's Religion of the Semites, lectures III. and
VII., for lucid exposition of this change.
THE UTTERANCES OF HOSEA
67
understand the tender oracle of ch. xi., “I am God and
not man. I will not destroy.” The tribal relation is
broken. Yahweh is not bound to do as men of a clan
would do, in slaying every clansman who is unfaithful
to his clan duties.
As we pass on to chapter ii. we find the same story
of home sorrows repeated. But now the meaning of
it all is discussed. The consequence is clear: the
children of such a home or land cannot claim the
deity's help or love. Then Hosea examines the sources
of the unfaithfulness. The unfaithful wife, or, by in-
terpretation, the unfaithful land and its people, had
enjoyed certain possessions and pleasures. The giver
was faithful; but the wife had forgotten who gave her
these. She was trying to find the givers, and look-
ing to lovers other than her old tribal ba'al, Yahweh.
Such "adultery” was making everything worse.
For he was the true source, and leaving him would be
leaving the fountain of bliss and all its streams. But
now Hosea rises through this very unhappiness to a
conception of a way of salvation. Yes, says he, she
will go away and so lose all her joys, her wine, her
rightful or wrongful pleasures, her food as well. But
then she will be hungry, cold, alone, and this will make
her return to her real friend. So Hosea theologises
and works out doctrines of sin and suffering, of re-
pentance and regeneration, of knowledge and mind.
Then he proceeds to set down the still higher result;
they shall know Yahweh, his nature, and real power,
and his devotion which is that of a true husband and
"He calls the mind - the heart," for to the Hebrew the heart was
the organ of thinking.
68
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
no mere baal. “They shall know Yahweh,”1 and
then all will be well.
We may observe that this theory explains wrong-
doing as the result of ignorance, or of the blindness
caused by excitement; it supposes that when the
sinner is brought by suffering and exile to clearness
of mind, he will then certainly turn and become
good. The theory will not stand the test of experi-
ence. Yet it is a great advance on the thinking of
Amos, who never asked whether men could be regen-
erated.
When the troubled people return, says Hosea,
Yahweh will yield, and make the soil fruitful, till all
things rejoice. Then earth and beasts and birds and
all men will live in a covenant of mutual faithfulness.
Here then we come, for the first time among these
prophets' oracles, upon the idea of a covenant or an
agreement. Hosea loves the word and the idea. He
seems to be the father of the great plan of “covenant"
which was embodied formally in the Deuteronomic
document and then introduced into the constitution
of the kingdom of Judah, a century later, by the king
Josiah about 620 B.C.
It must be noted, further, that Hosea looks on
Yahweh as a somewhat arbitrary being who does not
carry on his government on a great eternal plan.
1
rain and sunshine and life. Hosea has not yet at-
tained to the highest knowledge of the nature and
character of God. And yet we see that he has made
This passage may have suggested John xvii. 3 to its author.
THE UTTERANCES OF HOSEA
69
much progress : is a theologian and psychologist, as
Amos was not.
We must not pass from these chapters without re-
minding readers how full of tender beauty they are
in spite of the strange theme, so far from possible
use in religious education to-day. Hosea's moral
atmosphere is less pure than that of modern Chris-
tianity and the book cannot wisely be used in the ed-
ucation of the immature. Yet it has a strange, tender
beauty and pathos all its own.
Chapter iii. repeats again the strange story of sin
and the Hosean theory of conversion, and uses these
as a text on which to preach of similar sin and the way
of salvation. Hosea speaks here with high estimation
of certain instruments of religious worship, viz.,
maccebahs, i.e., stone pillars which marked places
where god had seemed to appear, ephods, or robes in
which men divined and consulted oracles concerning
the future or concerning duty, and even teraphim,
which were some sort of amulets or images of deity.
Strange to us, yet true, that Hosea counted these
things essential in worship. He evidently expected
to see all of them used again.
We reach now the long miscellany, cc. iv.-xiv.,
which may be divided as we have seen.
In ch. iv. 1-ix. 7 governmental wrongs are specially
condemned. A sort of refrain is added in ix. 8, 9.
The first part of this section, viz., iv. 1-v. 9, speaks
mostly of the faults connected with the ministers of
religion. “Let no man scold or blame, for the people
are like their priests ” (iv. 4).
Without trying the impossible task of analysing
70
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
all the prophet's notes, we must mark certain of his
great contentions. And first, his attack on the priests
leads him to repeat with great emphasis his view
that sin is the consequence of ignorance. The teach-
ers do not teach ; therefore, the people sin. The
teachers neglect to teach because when the people
sin they offer sacrifice; and so the priests get more
sacrificial fees. It pays the priests to keep the peo-
ple ignorant.
The prophet relieves the awfulness of the charge,
however, by falling back again upon the other ex-
planation of the ignorance. He says that whoredom
and drunkenness are common and deliberately prac-
tised at the religious feasts; these destroy the heart
or mind and then sin increases. He condemns sacri-
ficial feasts where such practices are followed, be-
cause they do not belong to Yahweh-worship but
are observances in honour of other deities. Here we
see, as in Amos, a distinct mark of the nobler char-
acter of the Yahweh religion which the prophets
taught.
In ch. v. 1-9 Hosea denounces the royal house as
equally guilty with the religious leaders. As for the
sanctuaries of Mizpah, Tabor, Shittim, where they
pretend to seek Yahweh, these are but resorts for
feasting and self-indulgence. Yahweh has gone
from them. Those who frequent them are his ene-
mies. Hence his judgment comes,--the sword of the
invader.
Ch. v. 10-vii. 2. The princes are untrue to tribal
land law. They alter boundaries, giving to some men
what belongs to others. They look to Assyria and
THE UTTERANCES OF HOSEA
YO
its King Jareb? or is it to "Muçur and its Arab king"
for help; but it is Yahweh who causes the trouble
and him they ought to consult for help. Yahweh
ought to be at home in the land, but he forsakes it.
Now follows a passage which seems to express a
repentant spirit among the people. The cry rises,
“Come, let us return to Yahweh.” This means how-
ever, “Let us go to the sanctuaries, and spend the
customary three days of sacrificial feasting. Then
our god will heal us and our land.” Hosea declares
such religion valueless. At one blow he destroys
the idea that he and his fellow Hebrews lived by
sacrificial religion. Sacrifices are to him decaying
relics of a bygone and imperfect life. He denounces
the hoariest and most honourable sanctuaries. She-
chem, Gilead and Bethel are dens of highwaymen;
their priests are murderous banditti. Love is the
true worship, and the knowledge of himself which
Yahweh demands is that he delights in loving kind-
ness, not in smoking sacrifices.
In ch. vii. 3-ix. 7 we read of king-making con-
spirators. These king-makers-indeed the whole
people led by them-are madly excited; the war
craze is a very drunkenness. Civil war lets now one
party exult, now the other; so there are always
drums and trumpets, and flags and shoutings and
jostlings and thrustings. One day it is, Hurrah for
Assyria! Another day it is, Hurrah for Egypt! But
It is more than doubtful whether Hosea means Assyria. The
prophet is looking to that quarter for the invasion, and there was
no Assyrian king named Jareb. The idea seems to be that they
shall go to Assyria despite their appeals to the king of Jareb(?).
Evidently the text is corrupt.—[Craig.]
72
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
by the fashion of the times he who cries “For As-
syria” praises the gods of that land; and the pro-
Egyptian really does homage to Egyptian deities.
All this means that Yahweh is nowhere in all their
thoughts. He has no share nor voice, as a clansman
should have, in the election of the kings. Since
their worship consists of feasting and drinking, they
have bread and wine indeed; but it is unblessed of
the god of their own land and therefore impure. It
is bread without hope, the bread of death.
The prophet couples two features of the disturbed
condition, and from the union draws a theologian's
conclusion. They are paying much gold and silver
for the foreign help. It is really these things, the
gold and silver, that are their gods. See, then, cries
Hosea, see that golden calf which once you held
sacred as a symbol of Yahweh! Is it not gold ? A
workman made it, it is no god! It will be broken
up, used as treasure to buy foreign help. In a later
passage, x. 6, the idea is repeated and carried far-
ther. Here the prophet reveals his theologising nat-
ure and rises to a discovery of the unreality of the
divinity of any image.
All these things—the absence of their god, the
godlessness of their government, the lack of true char,
acter, the careless, cruel ways—shall find retribution.
The nation shall be entrapped. They shall go to the
foreign land, not as honoured embassies, but as slaves,
and shall be cursed therein.
We have in ix. 8 f. a sort of refrain at the close of
the section thus described. It seems to tell how the
laughter of the people rings out over this “ absurd
LY
THE UTTERANCES OF HOSEA
73
prophet” of evil. He bows silently before the deris-
ion; and then tells the mockers that he may well be
driven mad amid such scenes, that he knows very well
there are men ready to waylay him and fling him into
a deep grave, even if they have to dig it in a sanctuary.
Again, therefore, he shows his dislike of the sanctu-
aries.
Here begins the second section of the Miscellany,
as divided above; viz., ix. 10-xi. 6, which reads les-
sons from the story of the past as Hosea knew it.
The contents of this section are still aimed largely
against the sanctuaries. They are briefly these :
In the very time of deliverance from Egyptian
slavery the worship of lust, which is here called wor-
ship of the ba'al of Peor, led all the people easily
away. But the consequence of such insult toward
Yahweh, who is the creator of all life, is sure to be
barrenness and decimation of the people. Hosea
sees how surely a lustful excess will ruin men.
At the Gilgal sanctuary there has always been hate-
ful conduct. Gilgal was the name of the landing-place
where the wanderers crossed from Moab over Jordan.
A Gilgal was also the place of birth of the Hebrew
kingdom under Samuel and Saul, according to the
Yahwistic story. - So Gilgal means "The First Days”;
and Hosea's claim is that from the first there has al-
ways been such hatefulness. From the earliest days
onward they have indeed prospered, but they have
always done wickedly. They have received kings
from Yahweh, then they have always turned and
made conspiracies and murdered their kings. But
now they shall have no more prosperity. They shall
74
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
give up everything as tribute to Assyria, even their
divine images and symbols. Worse shall come. Their
altars shall be deserted and overgrown with thistles.
The next note on past story refers to Gibeah. Ho-
sea may be thinking of the horrible deeds described
at the close of the book of Judges, or possibly of the
failure of the king Saul of Gibeah.
Now he turns to the days of Egyptian slavery, and
tells how Yahweh fell in love with them then, and
how he wooed them. But they shall go back to just
such slavery in Egypt and Assyria too, because they
know not Yahweh's love. Here Hosea argues ac-
cording to the old tribal theory. If one member fails
in his duty, the whole tribe must turn against him;
so if the people fail in their duty and regard and love
toward Yahweh, the patron member of the tribe, then
he must turn against them and avenge the dereliction.
But now rings out a refrain. Amid the recollec-
tion of those days and the bitter thought of impend-
ing ruin the prophet breaks down in his emotion,
then speaks as if Yahweh himself were speaking. It
is an utterance of love that has been seldom sur-
passed. The prophet is almost in despair, for his
traditional faith allows no way of escape from the aw-
ful sentence. In this anguish, wrestling for light, he
grasps at his earlier declaration in ch. ii. that the
people have really broken away from the old relation-
ship. The tribal union and theory have broken down,
by the people's own act. Yahweh is no longer bound
to act as a member of the tribe as they are members
See a paraphrase and description of this passage on page 141 f.
of the writer's Old Testament Theology, vol. i.
27
THE UTTERANCES OF HOSEA
75
and as he used to be. He is not "man.” The wrest-
ling soul seizes this faith, and now sees higher faith.
A new light breaks and a new doctrine is born. Yah-
weh is god and not man. He will not enter the city
to destroy. His loving kindness will follow its own
divine path. He cannot give them up, and will not.
They shall indeed go into Egyptian slavery, or into
Assyrian exile; but they shall fly back like migrating
birds and like doves that wing homewards. “And I
will bring them back to their home: thus hath Yah-
weh said.”
The third section includes chaps. xii. and xiii.
The outburst of tenderness has passed, which the
vision of past days produced. The prophet will turn
away from those days; they move him too deeply.
But the present life lies all about him and is plainly
bad. The Israelites are merchants of the sort who al-
ways practise deceit. They think to buy both Egypt
and Assyria ; but while they draw up an agreement
with the one state, they send the indemnity to the
other. So too they have always been deceitful, bar-
gaining with the brother Edom, bargaining even with
Yahweh's messenger at Bethel. These are touches
taken from the Yahwistic story. When they received
divine oracles that should lead them to love and jus-
tice, even then they went back to deceit. They have
trusted to their gains. They have cried with proud
satisfaction:
"Ha, Ha! I am rich;
“ All is well with me,
“I have gotten property.”
See Analysis of J, $$ 17 and 24.
76
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
But that property will not set the wrong right; it
will not give life nor buy forgiveness. For they do
horrible deeds around their sacrificial altars; and
those sacrifices and feasts are in honour of devils and
not of Yahweh. Therefore, these altars shall be stone-
heaps of the fields. They laugh at prophets! But
by prophets they received all their past guidance.
Was it not a prophet 1 that saved them from Egyp-
tian misery? Yes, and prophets shall still preach and
shall cry out doom, and shall bring the doom to pass.
Chapter xiii. hastens on to picture the common
worship. They have many symbols of the deity.
Hosea rather prized such images in chapter iii., and
honoured their use. He does not condemn them ut-
terly here; but he theologises and argues that these
deities are like themselves, and not as Yahweh is.
Perhaps these images included a lion, a panther, a
bear; for the prophet says that Yahweh will prove
to be the real lion, tearing them; the real bear, de-
vouring them; and this is to come to them on the
very road to Assyria, whither they go in their foolish
coquetting.
1 Hosea describes Moses as a prophet, not as a law-giver. This
is almost the very language of the Elohist. See below, Analysis of
E, $$ 49 and 63. When we read the Yahwist we feel that this con-
ception is coming : but it is in the Elohist that we get the clear ex-
pression of it. Hosea seems plainly to stand after the Yahwist,
and just before the Elohist. Indeed, the Elohist and Hosea are
singularly related in ideas; they might almost belong to the same
small circle. For Hosea loves to turn the story of the past into
sermons for the present, just as the Elohist uses the whole course
of his narrative. It is also to be observed that apart from this com-
munity of conceptions Hosea and the Elohist mention many things
as very important to both.
1
THE UTTERANCES OF HOSEA
77
Now Hosea lays his hand, with sarcastic words, on
the evils of which they are proud, their king-mak-
ings, their assassinations, and declares that after all
it is Yahweh who is the great controller in even
these events. It was he who gave evil princes; it is
he who takes away. Finally, in wrath and in a tor-
rent of sublime sentences he summons all powers to
lay hold and help to ruin this evil nation. He chants
thus in Yahweh's name :
“Now will I tear thee, ruin thee.
Come, Death, with thy diseases:
Come, Grave, with thy rotting:
Help me!
My mercy is exhausted.
Men shall be sword-hewn;
Women shall be sliced in twain;
Children shall be dashed to death.” 1
Now follows the refrain : Hosea could not let those
words be his last. His oracle of loving kindness
rises to assert itself again. His voice breaks and he
cries :
“O turn ye, O turn Israel.
Turn to Yahweh your god.
'Tis not he has slain you,
But 'tis ye yourselves.
Come, let us cry to him,
Forgive us our trespass.”
i These are awful words. Strangely time has inverted the order
and their meaning (Isa. xxv. 8; 1 Cor. xv. 55). Anger is not
eternal.
78
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
The prophet sings the answer of Yahweh to this
prayer for forgiveness :
“ I will heal, heal, heal all things,
Men's souls, the land, and all its life.
I am Israel's best symbol.
I am their sacred tree:
From Me comes all their fruit."
CHAPTER III
ISAIAH, PROPHET AND STATESMAN
740 to 700 B.C.
ISAIAH's oracles are political speeches by a states-
man who is first of all absorbed in the reality and
importance of his god, Yahweh. His strength is then
devoted to the care of the state and to the guidance
of it in righteousness.
The Story of His Statesmanship.
At the outset of our view of the man's condition,
we are bound to oppose the common idea, shared
indeed to some extent by Professor Kittel, that
Isaiah represented the whole people of Israel. The
facts of history and geography teach a different and
a startling lesson. He lived in Jerusalem, the little
mountain-town, capital of Judah, that was scarcely
fifty miles square. For the first twenty years of
his ministry he had to look out from this home upon
the comparatively large country of Israel lying to the
north, which was the enemy of his own little land.
For the second twenty years of his work Judah stood
all alone, for Israel as a people and kingdom was
gone. Judah was now no larger than before, but she
was much more exposed to invasions from the north.
Judah, in which Isaiah arose, is a poor land lying
high upon the hills. Most of it is from 600 to 1,500
feet above sea-level. The soil is not so fertile as
.
79
80
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
that of happy Ephraim, whose very name means
“ doubly fruitful.” Jerusalem stands 2,300 feet above
the sea on stony hills; its more famous portion bears
the name “ Zion,” which is literally " the dry and
withering place.” The supply of water for times of
siege was brought in from distant pools by a tunnel
hewn through the rock far down below the higher
street levels.
A cameo-like picture of the whole man, and, strange
to say, even of his whole growth, is given us in chap-
ter vi. Somewhere between the years 740 and 737
B.C. the aged sheik Azariah, or Uzziah, lay dying.
He had ruled long and successfully, but now all was
passing. A terrible earthquake shook the land;
a thunder-storm rolled and flashed across the sky.
Yahweh seemed to toll the great bells of heaven over
this man's death. As the storm raged, a youth was
sitting in the sanctuary hall built on one of the city's
hills. Amid the roar of the storm and the shaking of
emblems of divine high state. The seer-youth saw
attendant beings, veiled, almost invisible amid the
clouds of altar smoke and the darkness of the storm.
These were uttering to the young man's inner ear a
solemn declaration of the character which every true
Hebrew believed to belong to Yahweh. They said :
" Yahweh is altogether devoted
To his folk, of whom he is one;
To his land, which is his place of power;
To his sanctuary, where he feasts.
And all the earth knows his importance.”
ISAIAH, PROPHET AND STATESMAN
81
The young Isaiah was overpowered. As he recov-
ered, the deep sense of the goodness of Yahweh was
what impressed him; and this wrought in him the
sense that he himself was not good. He longed to
preach; but how could he, so poor in soul, so unclean
of lip! He gazed, and thought of the love of Yahweh.
He felt that this love came to him, entered by the
very lips that he counted so unfit, until they burned
with eagerness to speak.
What then, was he to preach among the people ?
What but the fact of their deep unworthiness, as he
had felt his own. In his vision his own impurity was
purged by fire; so at first he preached the burning and
the cutting off, just as Amos had done. Doubtless he
knew Amos's work; probably his desire to preach had
been kindled largely through it.
His field of work was in Judah; but it was largely
like the field Amos had had in Israel. The people
of Judah were living amid comfort, through Uzziah's
wisdom. In 735 to 732 B.C. the young king Ahaz
succeeded his grandfather, Uzziah, who had been
aided in his later years by Jotham, the father of Ahaz.
At once the vicious attack previously described was
made by the allied Israel and Syria : these threat-
ened to overthrow Ahaz and his state. Immedi-
ately Isaiah leapt to the defence and his preaching
became more like that of Hosea in its eagerness to
help and to save his king and people. The hour of
darkness drew out his wonderful oracle (chap. viii.) :
“ I will wait for Yahweh,
Who is hiding his face.
I will look for him,-
82
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
Lo!-I see his signs-
I and the children he hath given me
Are signs he gives that he loves.
He loves Israel,
And he is the lord of all hosts
Who dwells in our sanctuary in Zion."
He preached that Assyrian supremacy was Yahweh's
way of solving the difficulties of strife between the
smaller states. Assyria would silence Samaria and
Damascus, Israel and Syria, and Judah should be safe.
And so it proved. Tiglath-pileser III. broke up the
alliance and set Hosea, a ruler of his own choosing,
upon the throne of Israel in 734. In 732 he reduced
Damascus. There was quiet until, in 727, Tiglath-
pileser died and was succeeded by Shalmaneser IV.
This emperor was not a strong ruler. Isaiah seems
to have overestimated his ability. For when Phoni-
cia rebelled against Assyrian overlordship, and its
city Tyre was besieged, Isaiah predicted Tyre's speedy
fall, but that prediction was not fulfilled.
In 725 Samaria also began a resistance to the em-
peror that outlasted his life. But Isaiah concluded
that the end was only delayed. When in 722 Shal-
maneser IV. died and was succeeded by Sargon, Sa-
maria was soon taken. This was the end of the real
Israel. The name has been appropriated by the little
kingdom of Judah, and historians have obscured the
real progress of affairs by assuming Judah to be heir
of Israel, and that Hebraism went on quite steadily
in the south when the great northern kingdom fell.
That is to act as if Judah were really equivalent to a
country which was at least five times its own size,
ISAIAH, PROPHET AND STATESMAN
83
which was far more fertile, which produced many
more great men-including Samuel, Elijah and Elisha,
-and which was very much opposed to the ways of
Judah. Turning to a survey of affairs in Judah in
Isaiah's later days, we note first that the Emperor
Sargon had no easy task, although he overthrew Is-
rael. There was a revolt nearer home in the province
of Babylonia. This country was the delta-region of
the Euphrates and Tigris. It had been the mother
of Assyria in early ages; but now it had long been a
subject province of the empire. While Sargon was
busy in Palestine, there arose in Babylonia a patriot
and soldier and statesman, the indefatigable Mero-
dach-baladan. He defeated Sargon's home troops in
720; then he was able to hold independent sway in
the delta for ten years, and to make repeated insur-
rections. Sargon left him undisturbed until he had
faced the more serious task of conquering Egypt.
So, or Sewe, of Muçri' of whom we heard in Hosea's
story, was busy gathering an anti-Assyrian federation
in all the southern lands, including Philistia on the
coast-road, even some of the remnant people of Sa-
maria, and any Syrians that were at all free. Sargon
marched against these and defeated them utterly at
Raphia, a coast town below Gaza. Isaiah was watch-
ing events. His prince, Ahaz, was true to the As-
syrian overlord; so Judah was comparatively safe.
The prophet was filled with hope for a time of perfect
happiness, an expression of which is found in part of
chapter xi.
In 715 B.C. the king Ahaz died. Probably it was
Vide note, p. 15.
84
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
now that Philistia exulted, as is indicated in Isa. ch.
xiv., over the fall of a prince who had been in a sense
the representative of Assyria in Palestine for some
twenty years. He had ruled fairly well, in spite of
Isaiah's unfavourable attitude toward him in his ear-
lier days. Isaiah at first doubted the Assyrian over-
lordship and Ahaz's dependence upon it; but he had
much regard for Ahaz in that king's later days, and
hurled at exulting Philistia an indignant reproof and
warning, declaring at the same time-and for the first
time-a strong faith in Zion as Yahweh's chosen
place of safety for his people. The prophet had
previously looked to Israel 'as the great centre of
Hebrew life; when Israel fell and Ahaz made Zion
safe by his wise policy, then Isaiah quickly saw the
hand of Yahweh defending Zion and “founding
there the refuge," i.e., a military stronghold, for his
people.
Hezekiah succeeded his father Abaz in 715. If we
have just been deviating from the traditional view of
Ahaz, we shall have to oppose more decidedly the
traditional view of Hezekiah. It has been supposed
that he was a staunch follower of Isaiah, that he
worked a reformation like that of his great-grandson
Josiah a century later, and did so at Isaiah's wish.
But the story of that reformation comes from a sec-
ondary writer who willingly and often reads back into
early days stories and customs which are of late ori-
gin. Isaiah was not the man to plan much external
formality in religion or to desire it. It is probable
that the Deuteronomic document was written during
his time and there were plenty of tendencies in such
ISAIAH, PROPHET AND STATESMAN
85
direction existing all around him, yet he never once
betrays the slightest leaning toward them; it rather
appears by all his allusions to ceremonies and forms
that he disliked and scorned them.
Singularly enough, he never once mentions Heze-
kiah by name, although he does mention Abaz more
than once. He condemns certain political follies
in which Hezekiah was a leader, namely, rebellion
against Assyria by connivance with the Egyptian gov-
ernment in effort to destroy the Assyrian overlord-
ship. The chief evil that Isaiah fights in these his
later years, is that friendship with Egypt which
Hezekiah’s court is practising. The dangers that
the prophet fears to be coming from Assyria, were
probably all caused by this pro-Egyptian policy of
Hezekiah. It must be added that there is nowhere
any hint that Isaiah's anger was directed against the
court as distinguished from the king. He says Jeru-
salem is coquetting with Egypt and the court is doing
this : now Hezekiah was leader of Jerusalem and
chief of the court, therefore Hezekiah is Isaiah's
opponent.
Open rebellion against Assyria became active in
712 B.C. ; its centre was the Philistine city or state of
Ashdod. Isaiah is said to have gone barefoot—that
is, probably un-gowned, with bared legs, as slave-
labourers would go—" for three years,” if the time is
correctly understood, to show the danger of following
Ashdod's lead. Perhaps he began to do this as early
as 715, at Hezekiah's accession. Sargon concen-
trated his force upon the centre of mischief; he de-
stroyed Ashdod in 711. Now he turned homeward,
86
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
to check Merodach-baladan. That Babylonian was
sending agents to Palestine to foment the conspiracy.
We know he sent an embassy to Hezekiah, ostensibly
to congratulate him on recovery from an illness; the
embassy had a good look at Hezekiah's stores of war
material, not only in the capital, but all over the
kingdom. The illness had evidently passed away
very fully. Probably the commissioners from Baby-
lon arrived before the fall of Ashdod. So the illness
of Hezekiah would occur before that date in 712 B.C.
Sargon's measures against Merodach were thorough;
he attacked in full strength and drove the Babylonian
into exile in 710. He remained a fugitive until 703,
when Sargon died and there arose a fresh hope for
Babylonian independence through the change of the
emperor.
powerful prince and soldier. And yet Babylon made
the dash for freedom by a new conspiracy under
Egyptian leadership. The Egyptian throne was then
held by Tirhaka or Taharqu, of an Ethiopian dynasty.
All the Palestinian states seem to have joined in the
alliance, excepting one, the Philistine city Ekron.
The alliance dethroned Padi the prince of Ekron and
appointed Hezekiah as jailer to keep him in prison in
Jerusalem, the fastness among the mountains. This
suggests the natural safety of Jerusalem and the
rational ground for Isaiah's faith that Yahweh had
chosen it as his own refuge for his people; and it is
Inscription, Col. ii., 11. 69 ff.-
Vide Sennacherib, Prism
[Craig.]
ISAIAH, PROPHET AND STATESMAN
87
important for the correct estimation of Hebrew theol-
ogy. Isaiah's sublime faiths were founded on the
oracles given in a man's reasoning, and, as we say,
in common sense.
Sennacherib was delayed in the East until 702 B.C.,
but by that year he had reduced Babylonia again.
Now he marched into Palestine and down the coast,
reducing city after city as he went. He overthrew a
combined body of the allies at Eltekeh, somewhere
near Ekron: then he pressed straight toward Jerusa-
lem, taking the route now followed by the railroad
from the coast. He was a wise strategist. He climbed
to the city perched aloft and shut in “ like a bird in
a cage” Hezekiah, who speedily yielded. The Ek- .
ronite prince, Padi, was set free and an immense in-
demnity was paid. Hezekiah had to deliver up not
alone gold and silver and all precious things, a great
treasure, but also “his own daughters, the women of
his palace, male and female musicians.” Here we
have a picture suggestive of the little country away
up in the rugged, but naturally secure fastnesses of
the mountains, out of the way of travellers or of
armies marching between Asia and Africa, hard to
reach save by the roundabout valley from the west,
unfruitful too and not worth having. For all these
reasons it was safe, and the virgin Judah, daughter of
Yahweh, might have laughed at Assyria had she been
under a wise king. But Hezekiah's over-confidence
in his Egypto-Syrian allies, and his disregard of Isaiah,
brought the fall of his city and land in 701 B.C.
Sennacherib seems to have turned homeward im-
mediately after taking Jerusalem. The reasons for
· 88
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
this were partly that his work in Palestine was done
for the time being, partly that the home lands and
especially Babylon needed much care. The Ethio-
pian prince Taharqu, though still resisting him, did
not compel his withdrawal; for the Assyrian armies
soon returned to the subjugation of Edom and Arabia.
Here we reach the sudden close of Isaiah's story.
He disappears strangely, just after uttering some of
his noblest oracles. Did he lose his life at the hands
of angry fellow-countrymen, who saw how his warn-
ings had proved right? He had counselled them to
submit to Assyria; and they had to do so in the end,
after losing what Isaiah wished to help them to save.
The Substance of His Sermons.
To learn what was Isaiah's faith and what were
his theology and his morals, we must form a clear
conception both of what he preached and of the ad-
vancing movement of his mind from point to point of
his counsels, opinions, and ideas. But it is neces-
sary here that we take for granted some arrangement
of the discourses.1
Dating from about 740-737 B.C. we have chapter
ii., or most of it, which reveals the luxury and pride
of the times. Fragrant cedar wood from Lebanon,
1 The following works will be found helpful: Introduction to the
Book of Isaiah, etc., by T. K. Cheyne; A. & C. Black, 1895.
Das Buch Jesaia übersetzt u. erklärt, by Bernhard Dubm; Van-
denhoeck und Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1892. The Prophecies of
Isaiah. An Outline Study, by M. A. Kellner, Cambridge, Mass.,
1895, and the same author's Assyrian Monuments Illustrating the
Sermons of Isaiah; Damrell & Upham, Boston, 1900.
ISAIAH: SUBSTANCE OF HIS SERMONS
89
and strong polished oak from Bashan are plenty in
the wealthy homes. On the walls are rich works of
art, paintings, needle-work, carvings, symbols of
pleasure or of deities. On the highways are carriages
and horses; while down on the western sea is the
fleet which Judah has built. Every accessible foreign
contribution to comfort and to pleasure and to high
style is imported and used. Isaiah strikes straight
at all this in the passage before us, like Amos who
condemned luxurious life. But he has better judg-
ment in the matter than Amos had. Hosea who
lived in Samaria, could be pleased with luxury and
knew its use. Isaiah sees that such show is foreign
to Judah. Vv. 6-10 and 18-21 must be taken to-
gether, and then with a little necessary emendation
we have two regular stanzas, each ending in the
same refrain. The first stanza describes the wealth
and condemns it as foreign to Judah. The men of
wealth are bowing to the power of selfishness. They
shall not have forgiveness from the source of life.
And now breaks out the refrain in which Isaiah plays
skilfully, as he often does upon the sounds of words.
“ Away into the rocks with thee and hide thee in their dust!
From the Yahweh-terror! From his majestic light!
When he lifts him up to lash the land.”
In the second stanza, vv. 18–21, there is a startling
picture of terrors to come. It ends in the same
refrain. A new stanza in v. 11-17 both opens and
closes with the refrain:
“ The haughty eyes of humanity shall be brought low,
And the loftiness of men abased :
Yahweh alone shall be exalted in that day."
90
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
The theology in this is characteristic of the man
and of the whole position of these moral prophets.
The stanza is an affirmation of faith in that “Day
of Yahweh ” that Amos had preached. The doctrine
was perhaps much older than these prophets, but they
used it earnestly; and it became very important a
century later in the hands of Zephaniah.
We reach now the discourses preached at the be-
ginning of Ahaz's reign, about 735 B.C. Isaiah dis-
trusted the boy-king and denounced him and his
court and its harem-rule. Here is a glimpse into
the morals of the time on the one hand, and a picture
of the preacher on the other. In iii. 1-15 we read
of childish wilfulness, tyranny, irreverence, and con-
fusion. But the height of the charge and of the wrong
is that they whom Yahweh intrusted with the care of
the nation are grinding the face of the afflicted. The
rulers are devouring the vineyard of god; for the
comfort of the poor is identified with the interests of
deity. This is the beginning of a long and large
theological development that grew rich in later
days.
We may pass the oracle against the proud ladies of
Jerusalem, iii. 16-iv. 1, with its satire and scorn for
their haughtiness, vanity, immodesty, and its cry that
shame shall come.
The Song of the Vineyard gathers up the strength
of the songs we have seen, and chants it all in three
stanzas. The first and second end with the refrain:
“ He looked for good grapes :
But it bore vile grapes ! ”
ISAIAH: SUBSTANCE OF HIS SERMONS
91
The third has a refrain that interprets its predeces-
sors, but does so with a perfect Hebrew wizardry of
diction :
“ He looked for justice; but, behold, bloodshed !
He looked for righteousness; but, behold, outcry!" 1
The first stanza with its alluring song of a friend's
vineyard pictures a man's devotion and then his dis-
appointment. The second stanza appeals to the re-
vengeful spirit of the audience and pictures the dis-
appointed vinedresser angry and destroying. The
third stanza chants how the people are the vineyard,
untrue to the owner Yahweh. The deity is full of
. fury, and will have no mercy. He demands a public
justice above suspicion, but justice there is none.
The cry of his suffering poor rends the heart of the
listening god.
The next oracle is chapter v. 8–24, the sixfold, or
should it be sevenfold, cry of scorn and woe, where
each stanza begins with the simple but fierce “Ha!”
The wrong-doers are the land monopolists, greedy
feasters, mockers of religion, false, conceited, lovers
of strong drink. The gluttony was probably that of
greedy men and women at religious meals. The
attitude of Yahweh toward these is altogether re-
vengeful. He has no grace. The prophet thinks of
Sheol, the awful abode of the dead, as a ready in-
strument for the avenging Yahweh to use. The
conception of Sheol is thus quite well known. But
i Note the effective play on the Hebrew sounds :
• He looked for Mishpat; but, behold, Mispach!
He looked for Çedhaqah; but, behold, Çeaqah!”
92
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
Isaiah knows other possibilities of nemesis. Land
monopoly he sees must. bring death to all and at
last to the monopoliser himself. His most striking
denunciation is that against cool mockery of the love
and patience of Yahweh. Isaiah knows the love and
devotion in Yahweh's character, although he does not
regard this as redemptive love. That is yet to come.
The last of this series of oracles begins with chap-
ter v. 25, which is then followed by ix. 7–. 4; and
v. 26–30. This is the “Chant of the Outstretched
Arm." It is like an awful funeral dirge, across which
strikes ever and anon the refrain:
“ For all this his anger is not turned away ;
And his arm is stretched out still !”
The first stanza chants the pain-fraught pride of Is-
rael. The second laments the chastisement that did
not chasten. Those who should lead mislead, and are
worst of all. The third cries that all the scourge of
cruel strife has not yet worked repentance. There-
fore, more evil shall come. The fourth points out
that amid all the distress judges play the fool and the
literary men publish madness: the nemesis shall be
fearful. There is a low roar along the far horizon;
Assyria's army is marching on to overwhelm Israel.
The last stanza changes in tone. The style is as
wonderful and lofty as ever; but Isaiah seems to
be feeling that nemesis will not convert men. He
sounds no knell ; he chants no refrain. The closing
cry is like a low moan of sadness.
A new spirit breathes through all the oracles that
follow. We saw above how the alliance between
ISAIAH: SUBSTANCE OF HIS SERMONS
93
Syria and Israel, to resist the advance of Assyria, ex-
posed Ahaz to the loss of his chieftainship because
he declined to join the alliance and preferred to
favour Assyria. Jerusalem and its king were in dan-
ger. What now of Isaiah ? He brings cheerfulness
by his faith and courage, and strength by his wise
counsel. We turn to the oracles of 734 B.O.
Chapter vi., telling the story of the prophet's origi-
nal call, has been prefixed to these oracles, either by
the prophet himself or by his editor. We have seen
the substance of the chapter already.
In ch. vii. 1-16 we see Isaiah going to Ahaz, tak-
ing with him his boy named “ Shear-Jashubh," i.e.,
“ There is a remnant that is to return." This oracu-
lar name was to be to Ahaz just what Isaiah had re-
ceived in the day of his call. The prophet says, a
little later on, that he himself and the children Yah-
weh gave him were for signs and wonders, even when
the deity was hiding his face. So now, even if Ahaz
will not hear his words, and although many cannot
hear, yet Isaiah believes that lives seen are oracles
received. On that day all would know that Isaiah
had gone to Ahaz; that Isaiah lived and believed in
Yahweh's goodness and help; and that Isaiah, whose
name meant “Yahweh saves," was a fact as much
as the facts of trouble or of sin. This is no little
matter, but a high level of attainment in the history
of the religion of those people.
Ahaz is inspecting his water-supplies in view of a
siege. Isaiah approaches and says:
66 Take care to keep calm ;
Fear not, nor be faint-hearted.
94
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
Thus hath lordly Yahweh said ;
The league shall not stand
These leaguers are !-who are they?”
But here a few words seem to have dropped-or was
the ellipsis purposed ? Isaiah meant “Their head is
such ; but our Head is Yahweh.” Now he continues :
"If ye hold not fast, verily ye shall not stand fast.”.
This particular oracular idea was a favourite with
Isaiah. Now he wished to strengthen the prince, or
perhaps, only to test him, and discover whether he
would "keep calm.” In Yahweh's name he bids Ahaz
ask for himself any sign he chooses. He means, of
course, a sign of the wisdom of standing still. Now
follow a few things which have been singularly used
and even misused. First comes the prince's wise
answer :
“I am not going to ask ;
And I am not going to keep testing Yahweh."
These last two words seem like an echo of words in
the Yahwistic narrative. Ahaz feels he ought not to
do as the faithless nomads did. Isaiah answers :
• Hear ye,O house of David.
Is it too little for you to make a few men weary :
But ye are also going to make my God weary?
Therefore my lordly One is going to give a sign to you."
See & 49 in the Yahwistic story, or Exodus xvii. 2 f.
2 The word is plural and so it is not necessarily meant for Abaz,
who is previously addressed always in the singular. Isaiah proba-
bly turns to address the court, the others about the king who might
not be so sensible as Ahaz and would like " a sign."
SERMONS
ISAIAH: SUBSTANCE OF HIS SERMONS
95
Surely we must cease to find fault with Ahaz on ac-
count of his unwillingness “to keep testing Yahweh”:
for, in the first place, he does what is right; and, in
the second place, Isaiah's next words are not certainly
addressed to him; and thirdly, if Isaiah's words imply
some displeasure, the cause of this is not necessarily
the words uttered by Ahaz, but perhaps some weak-
ness that Isaiah expects in days to come; and, finally,
even if Isaiah be vexed with Ahaz's words, Isaiah
could make mistakes and should rather congratulate
himself that Ahaz does not put to the test his chal-
lenge to furnish any sign he might ask.
But now comes the special oracle which has been
strangely used. Isaiah proceeds to give the sign he
has promised, thus:
“ See the veiled woman who has conceived and is bearing !
( she shall, or )
Then thou shalt, or cry his name Immanu-El (A deity
(I shall
is with us).
Curd and grape juice he shall eat.
(For his knowing to refuse what is bad
For in the time ere yet the youth is to know refusal of what
is bad,
And choice of what is good,
The soil is going to be forsaken,
Before whose two kings thou art disgusted.”
Very evidently the child meant by Isaiah is within,
flect for himself on the ancient and modern misuse
of the promise. To Ahaz the oracle meant that
The passage in parenthesis is probably a gloss.
96
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
there was, or was to come within a few weeks, a wide-
spread confidence throughout all the homes of Judah
in the presence around them of a great helping deity ;
and the token of this would be seen in a simple
mother's choice, or the king's, or the prophet's
choice of a name for the babe now nearing birth.
With glad restfulness they would call the babe by a
name that meant “We know that there is a deity be-
side us, shielding us.” The religion of the prophet
and people is manifest.
Chapters viii. 1-ix. 6 may be divided into the
following five oracles: viii. 1-4, 5–10, 11-18, 19–22,
ix. 1-6. These probably differ in date and occasion
and possibly even in authorship. However, we may
set down easily the Isaian religious ideas expressed in.
them. First, an oracle is again attached to the life of
a child, for Isaiah names his new infant Maher-sha-
lal-hash-baz, “Speed-spoiling-haste-harrying.” Such
trouble will Yahweh cause to Judah's enemies. This
is virtually the same oracle that was whispered by the
young mother's lips as she named her child Imman-
uel, and it expressed the same faith in a coming deliv-
erance. Even the invisibility of the helper shall be
no bar to cheer, for sense perceives at times his near-
ness. Therefore, cries Isaiah, let us grasp his hand;
leagued with him we need fear no foe. But even more
comfort is given. Let doubt of his hand be dis-
pelled! In the lone hour of darkness, wailing itself is
strength; and we have really visible signs from God.
Our own life and our children are his gifts and prove
his love and our safety. Other gods and ghostly
revelations will produce only cursing.
ISAIAH: SUBSTANCE OF HIS SERMONS
97
Now, in the next section, light where darkness was
has shone in; a young prince has been born. Yah-
weh has verily fulfilled the expectations; and Isaiah
trusts that this babe shall bear the character for wis-
dom, bravery, calm control that the nation needs and
that Yahweh can give. This is certainly political, but
it is also an outpouring of the prophet's deep religious
nature and it illustrates the theology of the Hebrews
at one of their highest points.
This series of utterances preached amid the war of
734 is closed by two found in xvii. 1-6 and 9–11.
They predict first the entire destruction of Syria,
and then the destruction of Israel. The latter pas-
sage is very interesting for our purpose, because
Isaiah plainly speaks of other deities besides Yah-
weh as realities to him, although he naturally despises
them. He says:
“For thou hast forgotten thy God of help;
Thou art going to plant Naaman plants."
'Tis a stranger's slips thou art going to plant.
But-they'll fail.”
This expectation of ruin for Damascus and Samaria
was well-grounded. But Isaiah was not always cor-
rect in his forecasts. In 725 B.C. he chanted a finely
stanzaic dirge for Tyre, as if Shalmaneser IV. were
sure to destroy that city of vikings.
“ Yahweh, lord over all hosts, hath devised it,
Yahweh hath given charge concerning Canaan.”
1 Literally " anemones,” the red flowers sacred to Adonis and
symbolising the drops of his blood.
98
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
But this reading of the future was mistaken. And
this is an important element in his theology. The
strength of his confidence in Yahweh led him at
times to pass out from the legitimate domain of
knowledge concerning Yahweh's moral character, his
truth, purity, and grace, into another domain, that of
knowledge of God's providential action. But here
his claim was illegitimate, for a human mind does
not possess all the data of providential procedure;
whereas in the other domain he may know the whole
of the data, namely, the love of God.
From 723 B.C., and thereabouts, we have several
great discourses circling about the doom of the
northern people. Sargon destroyed that people
when he came to the throne and supreme command.
So xvii. 12–14 is a vision of the terrible onrushing
of the Assyrian hosts. Isaiah declares in faith, that
Yahweh controls this.
In xxviii. 1-6 the exquisitely eloquent wail for Sa-
maria is of moment for us; partly, indeed, for its fine
moral scorn for the silly debasements of intoxication,
but chiefly for its claim that the Assyrian overwhelm-
ing host is but one of the sky-darkening storms that
Yahweh brings and rules. Now we read the vivid
magnificent picture of x. 24—34, where Isaiah looks out
from the northern gate of Jerusalem over the mountain-
tops and sees what he thinks will be the line of march
of the Assyrian army, fresh from the destruction of
Samaria and eager for more booty, meaning to pick
up Zion as one picks fruit to eat. The picture is
prefaced with a calm utterance of faith that “all will
be well.” Then all the more splendid are the strokes
ISAIAH: SUBSTANCE OF HIS SERMONS
99
that sketch the lightning march through well-known
gorge and pass and village, ever nearer to the be-
loved Zion; till just before the gates all ceases. The
army with its lances is like a forest, but Yahweh is
the great forester:
“See the lordly One, Yahweh, ruler of all hosts,"
will surely hew them all down. But Assyria did not
make this march. The eloquent expectation is one
more quite unfulfilled prophecy.
There is much uncertainty of date for ch. xi. 1-9,
the lofty conception of the rule of an ideal king
over the saved land. It is Isaiah's second picture of
such a prince. It seems fit to belong to this date.
There are expressed in it several features of Isaiah's
faith important in order to understand his theology.
Foremost is his view that a man's power over men
lies in the godlikeness of his spirit. To the prophet,
the spirit that moved a man was not something
altogether within him, but rather enfolding him,
and thus working wisdom and reverence, fairness
and faithfulness, and giving him success in safe and
happy government. The spirit causes knowing ; and
almost on Hosea's old theory, it is this knowledge
that causes goodness. But the happy life under a
king of such spirit consists very largely of material
blessings; and more, these material blessings are to
be accomplished by the essential alteration of nature.
“ The lion shall eat straw like the ox,” etc. The
passage is poetical and may be hyperbolical, so we
need scarcely trouble over the contradiction between
the two features just described; and yet even the
100
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
peaceful rule and the harmless world are both, one as
much as the other, unfulfilled expectations. Here
again Isaiah's predictions wandered away from his
legitimate domain.
In 715 B.C. the king Ahaz died"; and, as we have
said, the Philistine peoples were loudly exultant.
Was not the pro-Assyrian gone? Isaiah, in xiv. 28–
32, bids them forbear from that glee ; for he warns
them that the Assyrian emperor himself will come
with an army that leaves never a straggler. Then
shall Philistia faint. And then they may expect even
Judah to be harried, too; but—here is the impor-
tance for us of this utterance—the king of Judah will
be able to tell all his people that,
“Yahweh is founding Zion!
And in her his people's bowed ones are going to trust."
Here is Isaiah's first clear utterance of faith in the
safety of Zion-as a citadel certainly and not as a
sanctuary. It may be that this is the source of the
later Zion doctrine. Isaiah was able to see, as anyone
else could see, how inviolable Jerusalem naturally
was, perched up 2,000 feet on barren mountains, far
aside from the great roads, a very little place, almost
a village. But the prophet points out the hand of
Yahweh in this and sees in it his definite choice.
Here is the essence of the character of Isaiah in a
sentence. Yahweh is lord of all things, men, doings
and movements.
We come now to Isaiah’s discourses and theology
during the reign of the king Hezekiah, 715 to 686 B.C.
ISAIAH : SUBSTANCE OF HIS SERMONS
101
We have oracles uttered in 711, 704, 703, 702, 701,
B.C., but none later. It is a traditional supposition
that the prophet's policy controlled Hezekiah; but it
is remarkable that in the middle of the reign Isaiah's
voice suddenly ceases altogether. We should have
expected to hear more of him if he were in the as-
cendant and giving himself to royally favoured cere-
monial reforms. Even if he died amid national con-
fidence and honour in 700 B.C., we should surely
have heard something of this. The silence is
strange unless indeed he was violently silenced, and
even murdered because his words were opposed to
the people's ways and the king took no care for
him. We shall see that the succession of utterances
from 711 to 701 means steadily growing antagonism
between the prophet and the court.
The first oracle from 711 is xx. 1-6. It attacks a
pro-Egyptian tendency. Isaiah's religious attitude
is at once notable. In the first place he uses dress
as a mode of discourse and wears that of a slave. He
knows the psychological value of a symbol; perhaps,
too, he had to keep silence with his lips as Amos
long before had advised the prudent ones to do.
Then, secondly, he proclaims his opinion of the van-
ity of Egypt's political claims; but he attributes his
opinion to Yahweh, who has conveyed it to the minds
of men generally along the Philistian coast. The
passage does not say that Isaiah spoke it; Yahweh
spoke it, and the coast-dwellers were saying,
“If Egypt is going to be enslaved
How can we escape ?"
102
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
The prophet's belief in the deity's management of
and absorbing interest in politics, and in all other
outside peoples as well as in a wise and happy course
for Judah, shows us what his theology was.
Very closely linked on here by their nature are two
utterances : ch. xvi. 14, a bit of resetting of an old
oracle concerning Moab, warning them of danger.
Here again is the interest in other peoples flowing
out of Yahweh's love for all. In xxi. 16 f., Qedar
too, some part of Arabia, is warned of coming failure
of her skilled bowmen, because Yahweh hath spoken
it. These two passages are valuable because they
show the prophet's political conviction that Assyria
is to rule all.
Far grander words follow in x. 5–15 and its proper
sequel, xiv. 24–27. Isaiah's love for his own land is
startled by a fear that Sargon may actually hurt
Judah. The Assyrian emperor-general is at Ashdod,
and seems to have said that Judah and her king and
deity are of little consequence. The prophet's soul
kindles with indignation and towers in scorn of this
man, be he who he may, who is such a fool as to
think to laugh at Yahweh. To Isaiah Judah's god
is God of gods. Yet the indictment against the
Assyrian is not altogether that he has questioned
whether Yahweh is identical with God, the Overlord.
He has set all his successes to the credit of no deity
at all, but to that of his own hand and wisdom.
There Isaiah's claim is unassailable ; 1 Sargon's, as
? The prophet here misrepresents or misunderstands Sargon.
Sargou believed in luis gods and attributed his victories and suc-
çesses to them, as all other Semitic rulers did. In his Khorsabad
ISAIAH: SUBSTANCE OF HIS SERMONS
103
represented, is madness. The prophet's character is
sublime in this; and so is his declaration,
“Sworn hath Yahweh of Hosts, to wit:
Surely it is as I, even I, have planned,
So it shall be.”
And now he catches up from words of years ago :
“For Yahweh of Hosts hath proposed,
And who can annul it ?
And his is the outstretched arm,
And who can turn it back ?"
There is no further oracle from this time, circa 711
B.C., but it was very likely at this date that the
events occurred which underlie Isaiah xxxviii. f.
There Isaiah is described as warning Hezekiah of
the folly of alliance with the Babylonian prince,
the enemy of Sargon. This Babylonian prince was
overthrown in 710 B.C., as the Eponym Canon shows.
Now we reach the climax of the oracles, those ut-
tered when Sargon died and was followed by an even
sterner prince, Sennacherib, from 705 B.C., on to
701, when Isaiah suddenly disappeared. The oracles
are ten in number:1 (1.) xxii. 15–18; (2.) xxviii. 7–
1
inscription he writes, Inasmuch as the great gods in their steadfast
purpose chose him, and granted unto him an heroic might over all
princes . . . during his reigo no prince was his equal, in war
and battle he knew no vanquisher.” When he tells of bis conquest
of Cyprus he attributes his victory to the 6 Mighty power of the
great gods who called forth his weapons.” Sargon had, besides,
some exalted ideas of the responsibilities his gods imposed upon
him.--[Craig.]
1 Given as in Cheyne's Polychrome Isaiah, pp. 27 ff.
104 THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
11
22; (3.) xxix. 1-6, 9-10, 13 f. ; (4.) xxix. 15; XXX.
1-5; XXX, 6 f. ; xxxi. 1-3; (5.) xxx. 8–17; (6.) xxxi.
4 f. ; (7.) i. 1–26 ; (8.) xviii. ; (9.) i. 5-26; (10.) xxii.
1-14. They are less read and less understood than
those of the prophet's early life. Possibly the rea-
son is that the traditional theory of Hezekiah's at-
titude makes it actually impossible to comprehend
how Isaiah could say such things concerning Heze-
kiah's government. So the oracles are made into a
riddle by this faulty tradition and they are conse-
quently almost erased from practical use. But a
study of the eloquence and wise counsel in the oracles
will show how great the preacher has grown. For a
grasp of Hebrew theology and ethics they are invalu-
able authority. Let us point out two features of their
whole nature. First, they are all full of contempt
for Egyptian help and for pro-Egyptian politicians
in Judah. In other words Isaiah has risen to a de-
cided faith in world empire and to a clear view con-
cerning it. To him the unity of divine control by
Yahweh is being realised through the overlordship
of the Assyrian empire. Doubtless the king Ahaz,
who has often been lightly esteemed, but who steadily
stood as in some sense the representative of Assyria
in Palestine, had helped to bring Isaiah to this view.
Secondly, there stands in the front in all these oracles
a growing faith in the safety of Zion, not so much as
a sanctuary or a place of forgiveness, but as a fortress.
He was more and more attributing its almost inac-
cessible position, and its undesirability as a prize for
invaders, to the all-controlling guidance of Yahweh.
These two points go together. If only the king and
ISAIAH : SUBSTANCE OF HIS SERMONS 105
the people will have nothing to do with the insidious,
worthless Egyptian government, and will not vex and
irritate Assyria, then Jerusalem shall be the safe, aye,
and supreme home of Yahweh.
Of the oracles separately, a few words will show
the nature and sequence.
Ch. xxii. 15–18 condemns selfishness, especially in
a courtier whose great aim is to have a fine carriage
and a fine tomb. Isaiah promises him travel, but
on foot and to Assyria; and a grave there in soil
wherein even Yahweh cannot keep him safe from the
powers unseen. Isaiah's theory of the soil is not a
fully logical outcome of his trust in Yahweh.
Ch. xxviii. 7-22 is the brilliant vintage discourse
based on the passage, vv. 1-6, that had been
preached to Samaria twenty years before. The
sketch of people, drunken, and that in fellowship
with drunken priests and prophets, is all most
dramatic. For our purpose we note the following
particulars: The condemnation of intoxications that
debase the mind and religious life, and of falsehoods;
the eloquent scorn of secret pro-Egyptian politics;
the evident familiarity of preacher and audience with
the idea of the Underworld, as a sort of person, or
almost a deity, with whom and in whose secret places
men can dwell consciously and even be busy; the
finely repeated assertion of the natural, because di-
vinely created, strength and safety of the fortress
Zion; the essential importance of a trusting spirit in
men and nation; and, finally, the unfailing certainty
of all that Yahweh decrees, whether it be protection
or destruction.
106
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
In ch. xxix. 1-6 a storm breaking over Jerusalem
himself besiege Jerusalem and then she certainly
shall be ruined. No place of military strength or of
worship is too sacred for him to destroy if it be
opposed to his way.
In xxix. 9 f., Isaiah boldly says the astonishment
at his attitude and condemnations is feigned. Then
he adds his belief that their conduct and their blind-
ness to their danger are actually brought upon them
by Yahweh as a judicial visitation. This doctrine
appeared indeed much earlier, and it is not at all
strange in a Semite. All the oriental peoples were so
filled with a sense of the overwhelming and overrul-
ing power of their deity that they tended easily to
such a doctrine.
In ch. xxix. 13 f. is another fragment that reveals
much of the prophet's mind. He distinguishes be-
tween formal worship and the attachment of the heart
to the deity. He points significantly to a certain un-
healthy would-be wisdom, which seems to have taught
even then that the deity may be appeased with forms;
while worldly policy and safe policy are matters in
which the Yahweh prophet had better be neglected.
Now we reach again the main point of practical
attack, the pro-Egyptian policy. There are four
passages which condemn this in plain words: the first,
xxix. 15, declares that this would-be secret policy is
direct condemnation of the policy because it is bad
policy entered upon without consulting Yahweh and
therefore sinful.
ISAIAH: SUBSTANCE OF HIS SERMONS
107
T
The fourth cry against the Egyptian alliance, xxxi.
1-3 or 1-5, is almost more fully theological than any
earlier passage. For it asserts that Yahweh is as much
a reality as the visible horses and chariots of Egypt.
Isaiah argues a good deal as Hosea had done, con-
cerning the difference between the nature of a god
and of other beings, and the consequent difference in
the helpfulness of these. Yahweh the holy or devoted
one of Israel is a spirit, and only a spirit can help or
can destroy.
Ch. xxx. 8-17, the third of these attacks on Egypt,
has several features of much importance for our pur-
pose; viz., these : the use of written oracle is distinctly
undertaken; and the object is to give future evidence
of the fact of the testimony; the prophet's spoken ora-
cle has been prohibited by the people and doubtless by
the government and prince. This prohibition is at-
tributed to a deep cause, the deadly wilfulness of men.
Isaiah's ethical reflection is probing very far. All the
time the character of Yahweh has been full of eager
desire to keep the people in quiet security. They
have run away from love. Certainly the prophet is
here showing us his idea of love as his own supreme
duty and at the same time his conception of the
character of the deity.
Probably i. 1-26 gives a picture of the morals of
Jerusalem at this time. The people are sinful, guilt-
laden, their doing evil, their sins scarlet, red as crim-
son. The catalogue enumerates these wrongs : for-
saking Yahweh, violence, want of justice to the orphan
and the widow, harlotry, lawless rulers, bribery, disre-
gard of the needy and extortionate charges for their
108
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
defence. And yet amid all this evil, and in hope of
obtaining Yahweh's help against siege and suffering,
certain things are practised which in Isaiah's opinion
are useless; namely, slaughter-sacrifices or feasts,
burnt-offerings, temple processions, offerings of sweet-
incense, observance of assemblies, new moons, and
sabbaths, fasts and solemn prayers. This does not
prove that Isaiah counted no prayer good; but it
does prove that he did not think the prayers offered
in the sacrificial system of his times a divinely
ordained plan of salvation. The system was of
course the national method of sacrificial feasts,
and not at all identical with the Aaronitic system.
Of that Isaiah seems to have no knowledge; al-
though if he did know it, he did not exalt it to
honour. His “soul hates ” the sacrificial system
that he knows.
To this same period belongs chap. xviii. Judah
was hemmed in by angry Assyria. Jerusalem was
now in danger. Now Isaiah's patriotism burns and
he feels in it the divine afflatus. He runs to the
rescue. Yahweh, says he, will await his own hour
and then arise to lop the Assyrian's branches and
throw the invaders for food, a long horrid feast, to
the vultures and the wolves.
Finally, ch. xxii. 14 is a doubly sad cry; it seems
to have roused the people to kill Isaiah. For some
reason Sennacherib marched away leaving Jerusalem
free. He had reduced it, pillaged its court, and he
was done with it. The day of deliverance was turned
into a day of revelry. The prophet seems to have
remonstrated and called the people to solemn recog-
ISAIAH: SUBSTANCE OF HIS SERMONS
109
nition of Yahweh's hand in these events. The peo-
ple replied :
“Let us eat and drink !
For to-morrow we die.”
They had no glad, large trust in Yahweh ; and they
were beast-like in their orgies. Isaiah's wrath burst
out in fierce denunciation.
“Surely the Lord of Hosts hath revealed it in my ears ;
Surely this iniquity shall not be cancelled till ye die."
The oracles cease thus darkly and suddenly. We
have no further record of the prophet. The explana-
tion seems most likely to be that Isaiah died by the
hand of the angry people.
Outline of Micah's Preaching.
We may add here a brief outline of Micah's preach-
ing. Micah is rather a man of the ordinary people
in whom we may see the impression the other preach-
ers produced. He discourses :
Of Samaria. .......... i. 1-7 A picture of her ruin.
8-16. Micah's wail for her.
Of Judah............ ii, 1-4. Woe to Judah also.
5-7. . Judah's retort."
8-11. Micah's stern reply.
After Samaria's 1 ui, 1-4. Judah's bad government."
fall. 722 B.C...s
5-8. Judah’s bad prophets.
9-12. All these are ruining Zion.
''The word 50p here translated congregation, sounds as late at
least, as the Deuteronomists. This might be certainly 720 B.C.
? Judah seems now to have appropriated the title 6 house of
Israel.”
110
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
Less certainly from
{ v. 9-14. Perhaps under Manasseh, 686-641.
the same Micah.. S
Long after Sama- ļ vi. 1-8. On past story.
ria's fall.......
9–16. On dishonesty.
vii. 1-6. On the lack of good men.
CHAPTER IV
ETHICS AND THEOLOGY OF THE GREAT MORAL PROPHETS
1. The Primary Fact and Feature in these Moral
Preachers.
THEY were primarily preachers of righteousness,
and of righteousness as the character and the pur-
pose of Yahweh, the god of Israel.
They do not follow at all the same course as the
Yahwists. They have indeed two things in com-
mon with that school of narrators. They know a
good deal of the story which the Yahwists tell.
Amos_ mentions as illustrations a few items in it.
Hosea brings frequent illustrations from it; or, not
really from the Yahwist's tale, for at times he fol-
lows the Elohistic view of things ; but he brings his
occasional pictures out of the store of tradition which
he uses in common with the Yahwists. He is not
bound to any form of it that we know. There was
no authorised or authoritative “Torah” or “ Teach-
ing” concerning the past which he could use as
something that the people would at once acknowl-
edge as divinely given. The past was given of Yah-
weh: that was all and that was enough.
But the Yahwists had written in a tone singularly
touched with the sense that “as a people, as men, we
are not good enough.” That sense is now the whole
111
112
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
soul of these four prophets. They belong to a
people whose song-writers and narrators were speak-
ing out a strange, awakened consciousness of moral
need. Then from among this people there spring to
the front a band who preach “Goodness.” “Be ye
good. God, our god, is good.” But they were not at
all narrators, as the Yahwists had been.
Again, they were not legislators nor teachers of
ceremonial duty. Indeed, they rarely mention leg-
commonly known in the present day as “Moses the
Lawgiver.” Hosea calls him a prophet, and he was
have been likely to refer to systems of law, for he was
a man of the court. The other man of the court was
Isaiah, and he utters never a syllable of Moses, al-
though he has much to say of Egypt, which one might
think could have found points of support in quo-
tation of the deeds of Egypt in Moses's days. All of
the four speak of teachers or allude to them, and
both Hosea and Isaiah say that the function of priests
was to teach. But now, knowing that, we may be
surprised to find that neither of these nor any of the
four has any respect for priests. There was no
honoured Levitical system in operation here. Nay
more, all four men seem bent on condemning all of
the ceremonies and sacrifices which they know, save
in the one case where Amos regards Nazarites or
Vow-pledged men as in some way emblems of Yah-
weh's will. Amos is bitter, Hosea is unsparing,
Isaiah is scathing, and Micah follows faithfully in de-
nunciation of priests and of all sorts of ceremonies
THE GREAT MORAL PROPHETS
113
and even prayers. Indeed whatever systems did ex-
ist are unanimously treated as the same as sin. They
are all heartless and a disgust to Yahweh ; they are
largely selfish feasts where men get possessions, and
where they superstitiously hope to curry favour with
a heaven that is as bad as themselves. Certainly
then there was a ceremonial system existing, but it
was all bad; and these preachers of goodness and of
God never dream of calling the ceremonial system
a divine institution or of appealing to it as originally
a dispensation of God, or a way of pleasing God and
attaining pardon for sin and the bliss of life.
In their preaching they point to sins many and
great, and they condemn them utterly. They declare
that Yahweh is altogether alienated from these things
and from the people because of them. They an-
nounce the coming of fearful penalties from his hand.
But they plainly condemn evil not because of these
penalties, but because it is hateful to the mind of
their deity. So, too, they urge men to seek goodness
because it is what Yahweh delights in.
Here is, therefore, a decided movement forward.
The people were already pervaded with the moral
sense and anxiety; they had been willing to listen to
a story related with such a tone. But now something
new occurs. There is a deeper, mightier movement:
a great offspring is brought to birth. Four men arise
who do more than feel, and more than describe the
past. The Yahwists were, as it were, the awaked con-
science. These four prophets are the awakened will.
" It may be noted here that there is no special word in Hebrew
for conscience, nor is there in any ancient literature until the time of
UL
114
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
The better national mind conceives now a deliberate
purpose and cries: “We must be good. Supreme,
inevitable demand is on us and in our souls. We
will be good. And all the nation must.” This is,
one might say, a passing forward from the sense of
goodness, the moral sense, to the religious sense, the
sense of an awful control, the disclosure of God.
But now this is not a uniform thing, a grasp by
everyone of the necessity of regeneration, and this in
one prescribed way. On the contrary, it is a rise to
great mental activity, and each prophet thinks inde-
pendently and continuously. No two of them agree
absolutely. The one moves forward from the views
of the other. More, each one moves steadily, strik-
ingly, from view to view; and at the end of Isaiah's
life he is seen to hold very different views from those
of his youth. The divine truth abides, and the sense
that goodness must be. But as to what that goodness
really is, each is continually questioning and learning.
Thus the result of the deep moral awakening was a
sense of the presence of God overwhelming them,
and producing-never numbness—but the most ac-
tive, intellectual, reasoning condition.
As preachers they exhibit this mental activity nat-
urally in great effort after true persuasiveness, which
is true eloquence. They use every method possible,
that of the oracle, or brief, pungent popular saying, a
watchword or battle-cry. They use the balanced
rhythm and swing of verse, shorter and keener, or
Zeno, circa 320 B.C., when we first meet with the Greek ouveldhous.
To the Hebrews the compulsions of conscience were the commands
of Yahweh.—[Craig.]
ETHICS OF THE GREAT MORAL PROPHETS 115
longer and more wooing, or one more awful. Often the
Hebrew alliteration is used to make a plea or a charge
strike home. Picture, illustration, imagination, all
the armoury of the pleader is constantly under com-
mand. There is no doubt about their intense purpose
to do their pleading work, and to use every possible
means to that end. This outburst of strong souls
and eloquent speech was an epoch in Hebrew history.
2. The Ethics of these Prophets.
Let us set systematically before us, in brief, the
moral position and demand of these preachers; and
first, let us classify the sins they condemned.
Amos condemns certain evils that he sees in fear-
ful abundance about him in Samaria : reckless hurt
to bodily life; selfish hurt to womanhood, mother-
hood, girlhood; indignity to the sinner's own char-
acter by gluttony and by great luxury; dishonesty
and commercial fraud; heedless hurt to the poor who
are Yahweh's special clients; irreverence toward hu-
manly sacred things and tasks; infidel thoughtless-
ness concerning deity; destruction of efforts after
ideals; injustice in court. All these things are un-
righteousness.
Hosea sees and condemns all these: but his atten-
tion is held chiefly by the particular evils following,
viz.: sexual unfaithfulness; civil quarrelling, and irrev-
erence toward governmental order and favour at home
and abroad; baseness of priests or religious officers,
with multiplication of religious regulations, altars and
the like for the sake of increased fees, gain, power;
116
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
dishonour of even the hoariest shrines among which
Shechem and Bethel seem emphasised in Hos. vi.
9 f. But the great root of all sin is ignorance : and
men are ignorant especially of Yahweh's love and ten-
derness. So he proceeds to discuss and condemn
what we may call a more theological sin, namely, a
misreading of the nature of a true deity by exalting to
divine value things that men have made. Tosea's con-
demnation is more concentrated. And it is spoken,
doubtless, from a closer personal interest in the
northern kingdom, and also with deep personal care
for the politics of the nation.
In Isaiah we find a wide range of condemnation,
and a deep probing into the nature of evil. This prob-
ing is deeper as years go on: the range of condemna-
tion changes and progresses in extent and in correct-
ness. In his early days of preaching his conscience is
roused chiefly against luxury. His people, he thinks,
ought to be austere; should have little or nothing to
do with the comfortable ways of foreigners. This is,
of course, an imperfect view of life and goodness; it
springs from insular vision. But he condemns also
haughtiness, and the excesses of drunkenness and
gluttony at sacrificial feasts. Sins these are cer-
tainly, but they are fruits rather than roots of sinful-
ness. He condemns the injury done to poor persons,
as done to those in whom Yahweh has special inter-
est. This had been the teaching of Amos; but noble
as it is, it is not the ultimate position of ethics. But
Isaiah shows even in these early days a nature that
means to probe deep, when he strikes at the evil of
Cf. Wellhausen, kl. Proph., pp. 16 and 114.
ETHICS OF THE GREAT MORAL PROPHETS 117
land monopoly and lays bare its essential deadliness.
He reaches a profound depth also, when he condemns
all unreasonableness, all conceit that says “I will do
as I like,” even if it be to say bitter is sweet, and light
is darkness.
There is a deeper insight in chapter vi., which is the
story of the early call, but is prefixed to the dis-
courses of the second period. What troubles Isaiah's
conscience here is his own uncleanness, and not the
doings of the people about him. He is turning to
a truer criterion of sin, the sense of it in himself
awakened by a vision of God. He feels uncleanness
in the very organs and centre of his life; and then he
begins to reflect upon the perversity of inner nature
that is heavy and dull and hard to arouse to sight of
good and duty. So in this period, he turns to test
and to indict the actual courses of conduct taken by
leaders who ought to know, rather than by the duller
common people. He goes straight to the king and
warns him of the danger of the sin of distrusting his
god. He condemns in fiercest words the civil strifes
of Hebrew people against Hebrew people, and the
conspiracies laid by leaders. Evidently he has moved
to a more real area. The sins he condemned before
were bad enough, and indeed he still condemns them,
and does so to the end; but he is going far straighter
to the core of evil now. He accuses leaders of set-
ting little value on deity, and therefore turning now
to one and now to another. They act on mistrust;
they are in fretful haste; they have in mind abso-
lutely no real support to fall back upon. So, very
easily, a vintage season and its excitements lead them
118
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
to try the drowning of fears in cups and excess, or to
try the cool shade of some religious trees and forget
real evils amid the momentary comforts.
Then he reaches the great political task of his life,
and tests the government's policy of alliance with
Egypt. He exposes its uselessness, and calls trust in
useless things a sin. He tells the government and
people that man is not a fit match for God in laying
plans, secret or open, and in accomplishing these.
Yahweh, that is God, is sure, wise, and able, although
he is unseen; and, moreover, he is full of love for
Judah. The great sin of the people is their reckless
disregard of all this. There are some who go further
still and try to practise astuteness as over against
the prophet and his god; such astute plans to man-
age God are sin. Even Assyria, with all its power, is
mad when it opposes Yahweh.
At last, there is a great sin, “the inexpiable sin,"
as Professor Cheyne names it, to wit, failure to be
serious, solemn; failure silently and humbly to listen
to God's voice in the days of deliverance and joy.
The greatest sin, the last that Isaiah condemned, was
want of godly thoughtfulness amid material pleasures.
Such, then, are the evils that these prophets con-
demned.
3. The Ideals of these Prophets.
Let us set over against this the ideals which they
held up.
Amos demands Goodness, and that is no mere
fancy choice made at random, it is what Yahweh
chooses and loves. In order to attain to its univer-
IDEALS OF THE GREAT MORAL PROPHETS 119
sal reign, the prophet simply bids men come and
seek it for themselves. He does not directly suggest
the need of help to do so. And yet he does imply
help, for he speaks of forgiveness to the people, as a
people, because they are little; and he teaches em-
phatically that Yahweh reveals his secret mind to his
servants, the prophets. He goes even further, for
he tells Amaziah that Yahweh has spoken to him,
Amos; God himself has directed him to preach,
although he was no prophet. On the other hand, if
men will not seek good they shall die; Yahweh is
determined to have goodness in the earth; and all the
sinners of his people are to die. This death is a cer-
tain unhappy descent into Sheol, which we know
from other sources to have been conceived as a dim
underworld where the departed lay,.conscious but
helpless. Amos does not describe any alternative
happy condition for the good. They are just to live
in Israel not cut off by the sword, i.e., not cut off
as warriors in their prime, but enjoying a good old
age. But the prophet has no clear grasp of the
value of the individual, or of any ultimate ideal that
he may reach.
Hosea's ideal condition is not indeed a more hon-
est and noble thing than that of Amos; but it is
more profound. It sets out with a strain that comes
from the inmost heart: he wishes his nation to be
the wife of Yahweh, all love and so all faithfulness.
There is here already a touch of the certain distinc-
tion he recognises as having appeared between God
and man. Of old the ideal state was that Yahweh
was, and each Hebrew was, alike member of the com-
120
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
mon clan or brotherhood. But now men are to
receive from Yahweh a treatment far above all that
they give; they are to dwell in a divine bosom of
grace and forbearing, pardoning, love. And yet,
again, the distinction is not fully pressed to its
apparently natural consequences. For the loving
kindness, “ Chesedh,” that so fills Yahweh and directs
all his ways is held up as the ideal for men likewise.
And all this is to be the outcome of a quality whose
exaltation is specially characteristic of Hosea; it is
knowledge that men are to have and that is to work
all good results. They are to live far removed from
all dissipating influences; and then with clear mind
they shall know Yahweh, and in knowing him be
one with him. This is the coming ideal, righteous
life that Hosea exalts. Then they shall speak to Yah-
weh in true prayer, in humble yet trustful cry for for-
giveness of past wrong-doing. Along with such
worship, they will obey the true prince, be taught by
true priests, use nobly the altars and pillars and even
teraph-symbols of deity. They shall have a true
system and noble observance of landed right for
every son of Israel. They shall be pure and chaste
in their social life, honest in their trading, and
straightforward in all their diplomacy. That is
Hosea's ideal for the people.
Isaiah is again different. His ideal is austere, as
became a dweller on the mountains of Judah, with
their cool, bare pasture lands and their lonely glens.
So we have in all his early discourses negative direc-
tion chiefly, almost no picture of an ideal state. Yet
in the Song of the Vineyard what Yahweh is said to
IDEALS OF THE GREAT MORAL PROPHETS 121
expect is justice or judicial order, and righteousness
or firmness of character. But these are not de-
scribed in any enlarged detail. At the opening of
the second period this is indeed explained. There we
read how his early conception of his commission was
that he should be ever hewing down afresh the peo-
ple's growth, ever pruning, so as to have just the
bare but true stump and stock. But this vision re-
veals also the heart of the man, and shows us his
prized ideal. It was that men should have fellow-
ship of speech with Yahweh, the gloriously exalted
god of Israel. The first moment of Isaiah's clearly
conscious religious experience was a moment of experi-
ence of Yahweh causing him to know himself, as en-
dued with the goodness of purity, and as the richly
exalted speaker for Yahweh.
The prophet went out to preach fellowship with
Yahweh, alliance with him, revelations from him, for
king and people. The revelations and fellowship
would be doubly blest, for they would, in the first
place, be assuredly for all men. Then in the second
place, they would come through the voices of men,
even through the persons and appearances of little
children, through the joys of motherhood, through the
rule of princes, their worthy majesty, their righteous
and lasting success. Such a condition of society is the
ideal of Isaiah. But his goodness is different from
Hosea's. Not by knowledge that a temperate man
gets, as it were, for himself, but by a divine afflatus
given to the leader of the state and so moving all the
people. Still it is the divine fellowship, but it works
in a way almost above understanding. Yahweh's
122
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
breath is to rest upon and about the prince, and to
give him a new breath and spirit. Then the ideal
man, prince, people and even ideal beasts result. The
prince knows Yahweh and he fears him with rever-
ence. The royal spirit is wise to judge in the court
and to reprove. The feeble are helped, those who
suffer robbery of land get justice. Godless men are
caused to die. All men at home or abroad trust the
prince. Ravenous beasts cease to ravin and the
very soil knows Yahweh. These features may,
indeed, be due, in part, to hands later than Isaiah;
but the root idea of an overwhelming presence in-
spiring men is certainly Isaian. The people in the
ideal state will have no fear of war, for Yahweh is
always building safeguards about them, and the
humble nation will trust and be quite at rest. But
formal worship will not be the necessary key to that
ideal condition. Isaiah does not indeed say that all
formal worship is bad; to draw such a conclusion
from ch. i. 15 would be to conclude that prayer is
bad, but Isaiah himself prayed. And yet he never
suggests, as Hosea did, that there shall certainly be
symbols and sacrifices and priests in his ideal Israel.
We may add here that the most notable feature in
Micah's ideal is this same condition of inspiration by
Yahweh, with all the righteous conduct which that
produces.
1 The passage xi. 9 has a very suspicious expression in the words
70 77. It is perhaps of later date than the exaltation of Zion by
Josiah in 622 B.C.
THEOLOGY OF THE GREAT MORAL PROPHETS 123
4. The Theology Proper of these Prophets.
We are ready now to collect in order the ideas
these preachers had concerning God, his nature and
character.
They inherited, and still worked mentally along,
the tribal theory. This has been admirably ex-
pounded by the late W. Robertson Smith. The faith
is, in brief, that while every soul was impressed with
the sense that there is an unseen person at work in
all things, lives, and events, causing all, guiding all,
whispering to many an ear; yet each tribe or large
family conceived of this unseen one as a being of
their own nature and belonging to their own tribe
or clan. So each tribe believed that it possessed
one divine member, a divine being who was peculiarly
a member of that clan. Consequently, there were as
many divine beings as there were clans. This might,
of course, be somewhat modified; for several clans
might have descended originally from the same small
family, and therefore all these might have a com-
mon deity, who was the greatest member of the clan.
He was its head, originator, defender, chief warrior,
and rightful ruler, and was to be consulted in all im-
portant times of decision. The food that gave to all
members a common strength, and mutual bond for
war or any momentous act, was to be offered to this
clan-deity. Such food was flesh food; even the blood
was used, for the blood was the hidden secret in every
living person. The deity received his share of the
blood. It was poured on the soil, the sacred supporter
of all life; and as it disappeared it seemed to be ac-
124
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
cepted by the deity. So some parts were burned,
and he seemed to accept them as the odorous smoke
ascended into the unseen. Fellowship with him must
be maintained at all costs; and if any members, or
the tribe wandered from him they might expect a day
to come, his day, when he would have his way.
There was, besides, the underworld, whither all the
dead went, and there, in dark silence, grim terrors
awaited those who disagreed with the deity who con-
trolled that place.
For all his lovers the deity would be all-helpful ;
they should enjoy the earth’s fruits, for he created
and controlled the soil and its hidden fountains, caus-
ing its springs, its marshy coldness, or its dry desert.
He withheld or he gave the rain, and by it he caused
the fruits of the earth, corn, wine, and oil and the life
of the herd and the flock.
But this theory was breaking down before the
pressure of the political and agrarian troubles, that
were rising as the great rivals for world rule overran
the smaller states. Amos warns Samaria that Yah-
weh is displeased because he finds little done among
men that is after his own heart. This preacher
would set up a new class who have special attractions
for Yahweh, namely, the poor and the sufferers; or
he speaks of a class with whom Yahweh has special
relationships, namely, his slaves (servants) the in-
spired ones, to whom he tells his purposes.
Hosea finds that Israel has forsaken her own"ba'al,"
Yahweh. She has gone like a harlot to other“ Ba'als,”
or lovers, supposing them to be surer fructifiers.
Hence the people belong no longer to the same class
THEOLOGY OF THE GREAT MORAL PROPHETS 125
with Yahweh. He is god, and not man. But this
furnishes him with an opportunity to form a new
relationship. Freed from clan obligations he may
cease to be the clan's “ba'al” or landlord; so because
he has devoted love for Israel he will woo her, and
win her, and be her husband. No longer shall she call
him “ ba ali” my landlord, but “ishi,” my husband.
Isaiah sets out with the wrathful denunciation of
the conduct that has made light of Yahweh's holi-
ness, his Qodesh, that peculiar devotion which a deity
has to his clan, and he sees only trouble, moaning,
death to come. Then he remembers that this de-
voted one had given to him a revelation that pro-
duced, indeed, sense of ill desert, but also a cleansing
on his lips and in his soul; and then and there this
god had actually intrusted him with a great sacred
task of preaching, to cleanse and to save at least a
remnant of the people. Here was a change indeed.
Isaiah had expected, on the lines of his old tribal
tradition, that Israel must be destroyed for her dis-
obedience to her god, her uncleanness of tribal char-
acter. But he discovers that a new relation is pos-
sible. Yahweh is higher, better, more devoted and
gracious than they had thought he was.
What was the essence of the new prophetic view of
God? Two main rubrics of attributes are manifest:
one is the new moral attributes in Yahweh; the other
is a new relation to all men and things, and not to
the Hebrews only. Yahweh was Lord of Hosts.
We saw above that the Yahwist had used this term
Yahweh, Lord of Hosts, once at least, and in a sig.
nificant part of his story, when David was exalting
126
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
Yahweh by planting a place of worship for him in the
new capital, Jerusalem. We saw that while the term
meant primarily a faith that Yahweh ruled all forces
in their own land and in the sky above themselves,
yet they were likely to be reading into it also the
faith that David's control of many tribes or little
nations beyond the boundaries of the Hebrews proper
meant that Yahweh was overlord over all the deities
and unseen powers of those peoples. They were
beginning to realise that there might be one control
over at least all things that they knew. Amos again
uses the word largely, and he believes also clearly
that Yahweh rules the affairs of many nations; namely,
all the circle around the Hebrews who are warned of
his anger at their conduct in chapter i.; and also
the Africans, or the Egyptians, from whose hands he
brought out Israel, just as he caused the migrations
of the Philistines from Caphtor and the Syrians from
Kir. Hosea uses the term, but only once. It is in-
teresting to observe how the men of the larger north-
ern kingdom thought less of their god's world-wide
rule than did the people of the very small southern
Judah. The north had more practical touch with
other peoples; the south could dream more easily.
And yet Hosea used the word; he too speaks largely
of Israel's relations to Egypt and to Assyria as ruled
by Yahweh.
Isaiah rises clearly in the course of his life to a
grasp of the idea of Yahweh as the ruler who controls
Assyria. At first he was somewhat afraid of that
great power; but by and by he rises to a magnifi-
cent height where he tells Assyria, the ruler of all
THEOLOGY OF THE GREAT MORAL PROPHETS 127
nations, that she is simply the rod in Yahweh's hand.
And that theory he holds to the end. He is advan-
cing then to a conception of one control, one system
of government, one supreme will, one God. Certainly
he is reaching monotheism by way of an overlordship
of many and even all gods under Yahweh, the god
of the Hebrews.
But this theory of Yahweh's control rests distinctly
on a moral basis. All these preachers stand for the
good character of Yahweh; and they refer to it as
goodness which everyone, men of all nations, must rec-
ognise. This is deeply interesting. As soon as the
moral character of men is felt, and as soon as the
preacher begins to appeal to conscience, then at once
he sees all men as alike in this respect. The prophets
never dream of questioning whether there be one
categorical imperative or moral law for one land and
another for another. It is right for every child of
man and every nation to do right. The conscience
makes the whole world kin. Here then is the great
control. Here is God. As soon as Yahweh is felt to
be good, then he is lord of all. Monotheism enters
here; and here our vision of “God” to-day, and our
sense of supreme control, is what those preachers
felt and saw.
Now let us differentiate in a few words the phases
of this divine goodness which they severally saw
according to their several temperaments. Amos
asserts simply and completely that Yahweh is good.
“Seek goodness and ye shall find Yahweh.” c. v. 14.
This seems to be the purest of utterances. And yet
the form of it is not the best, because the idea of good-
128
THE PROPHETS OF GOODNESS
ness must have contents; and Amos leaves it much
more undefined than do his fellows. That is not to
say, however, that he speaks only of goodness in gen-
eral, for we have seen how he condemns specific sins,
and exalts by implication a fine ideal of good conduct.
Yet the phrase makes the impression that the thought
is incomplete.
When we turn now to Hosea we are close to a warm,
beating heart. He says Yahweh's goodness is his
loving-kindness, or perhaps better, his grace; for so
we may render Hosea's word 70H (Chesedh). This is
the wondrous love with which Yahweh would woo and
win his bride. This it is that withholds him from de-
stroying rebellious Israel. This is what he longs to
see filling men's minds toward each other. This is the
character that delights him; for offerings on altars he
does not care. Hosea sees in Yahweh that character
that our elder theologians called “Favour to the ill-
deserving," and which, said they, Paul preached as
the glory of Christianity.
Isaiah's discourses of the later periods, all preach
this same character “grace" in Yahweh. But Isaiah
goes back, takes the old word devotion or holiness, i.e.,
godhesh, which meant the special relation that ought
to be manifested by a deity to his people; and he
teaches that this devotion is really that favour to the
ill-deserving which Hosea had so wondrously pictured.
So Isaiah exalts the whole Hebrew idea of the nature
of a god as devoted (qadhosh) to a particular people,
and reads into it the new significance of Grace that
Hosea had seemed to discover as now revealed in
Yahweh because the old divine character seemed to
THEOLOGY OF THE GREAT MORAL PROPHETS 129
be no longer possible. Goodness which is loving-
kindness, Isaiah would say, is the only character the
real "devotion” which a divine being can possess.
We have dwelt long on these prophets, and espe-
cially on Isaiah, because to know them is to know
all that is best and abiding in Hebrew religion, ethics,
and theology.
PART IV
THE FORMAL DOCTRINAL TEACHERS
750 TO 700 B.C.
INTRODUCTORY
We reach a period where almost any view of the
whole will have to risk meeting serious criticism. It
is not because the theory to be followed below implies
that an Elohistic School existed. The discovery of
an Elohistic document running from Gen. xv. onward
was made long ago by Hupfeld. The analysts have
done their work so patiently and well, that it is now
pretty certain what is Elohistic and what Yahwistic;
as also it seems plain that the Elohistic quota is the
product of a school of thought and of several writers
rather than of one man; and finally, it appears that
portions of this Elohistic literature are to be traced
as far as 2 Sam. vii., but that they cease abruptly
there.
Our further statement may not be so generally
favoured; viz., that the School of Elohists may be as-
signed with a fair degree of accuracy to the time just
preceding the destruction of the northern kingdom
by Sargon, 722 B.C. The justification for this con-
clusion is, on the one hand, that the document exalts
Shechem, i.e., it exalts a northern sanctuary as the
2
130
INTRODUCTORY
131
chief centre of religious interest for all Hebrews, and
therefore, and for other minor reasons, this literary
school must be assigned to northern writers. And
since the northern kingdom was destroyed in 722, that
date must be the terminus ad quem. On the other
hand, the terminus a quo is given by the distinctly
moral and hortatory nature of the Elohistic work.
The Elohists take up many of the positions of the
Yahwists and deliberately alter them, most notably
in the case of the Decalogue. Therefore E followed
J in order of time. But do the Elohists follow the
prophets; or is the reverse true ? Both classes
were hortatory. In reply, very evidently the Elo-
hists' Decalogue was not used by the prophets, who
would surely have been glad to use it, had it already
existed long enough to become honoured and quoted.
It certainly did so exist in Josiah’s days a century
later. True it is that no prophets, early or late,
make very much use of this document. Jeremiah's
references to anything of the sort are very slight as
compared, for example, with the Talmudists' use of
the legal and ceremonial documents of the Torah.
Indeed the Psalmists, the Wisdom-writers, and the
Apocalyptists, make but slight use of such docu-
ments: and we may misinterpret the Hebrew and
Jewish mind toward “ law” when we think that they
all held the Moses-Torah in great esteem. So we
need not suppose that the prophets must certainly
have appealed to the Elohistic Decalogue, even if it
had been in existence. Probably it was known to
Isaiah and Micah in their later days. But our ques-
tion seems decided fairly when we observe that while
132 THE FORMAL DOCTRINAL TEACHERS
the prophets do not use the Elohistic products, the
Elohists do use the work of the prophets. The Elo-
hists imply the aroused willingness of the people to
listen to discourse, even very formal discourse : and
certain formal theological conclusions, or argumenta-
tively reached views, concerning God, his nature,
and his character, and his chosen people, are used
so freely by the Elohistic writers that the nation for
which and in which these could be composed must
have already been passing through that moral excite-
ment which the prophets represented. The prophets
are, in the strictly rhetorical sense of the term, the
“inventors" of these ideas, while the Elohists draw
up somewhat stiff formulations of them. The mat-
ter stands much as in the case of the revival of religion
in the first half of the XVIIIth century. That was
followed by a great harvest of commentaries on the
Scripture and of ecclesiastical organisations in the
end of that century.
But all this compels us to a further step. We must
lowed the Elohists logically and speedily. The Deu-
teronomists are Elohists. The Elohists planned theo-
logical views and ecclesiastical order, let us say, that
they might realise the moral fruit of the prophets.
The Deuteronomists said that the Elohistic spirit was
right, but that this spirit demanded a more thorough
logical application of its own principle. “Reflect and
lay down moral orders," said the Elohist. “Organise
fect," said the Deuteronomist. We have seen how
Hosea suggested that there were too many sanctu-
INTRODUCTORY
133
aries, and that the principle of multiplying them was
bad. We have seen that he came very near indicat-
ing the belief that Shechem was the most important
sanctuary. We have seen how Isaiah was learning
to believe in Zion as a place favoured of God, and
therefore a safe stronghold, and to some extent, a
specially favoured sanctuary.
Now we find that the Elohists also deliberately
exalt Shechem as the chief and divinely chosen place
for Yahweh's meeting with his people. We learn too
that the Deuteronomists preserve the very words of
E' which thus exalt Shechem, and so the Deutero-
nomic theory of one sanctuary means centralisation
of all worship, and, indeed, of civil order too, in and
around Shechem. In fact, the process of Hebrew
theological and moral history was one steady Deuter-
onomic Reformation. Such a reformation was work-
ing all through the methods of formal organisation
and indeed in the prophetic work which caused that
organisation.
Presently we shall see how Josiah came to know
of the Deuteronomic documents, or some one of
them; and set about applying them practically to the
management of his little state. Josiah did this in
the faith that this centralisation was Yahweh's re-
vealed will. That will, he thought, could be read in
the hoary document, a century old ;? and if this will
We use this letter “E” as a brief, handy substitute for the
words of the Elohistic School."
? It should be stated that scholars usually assign the Law Book to
a later date, the majority favouring the reign of Josiah ; others, as
Ewald, Bleek, Driver, Kittel, the reign of Manasseh.-(Craig.)
134
THE FORMAL DOCTRINAL TEACHERS
-
were performed, then Yahweh would be bound by
his covenant to save the Hebrew state, i.e., Judah,
from all ills. The faith was a material one, it fol-
lowed naturally a supposed material book-revelation.
But much that has just been said depends on the
nature of E. The analytical work necessary to let E
be easily understood has been done, but the piecing
together and reconstruction of the Elohistic writing
has been only recently accomplished. To put the
student in somewhat adequate possession of the out-
line of E, the analysis of its contents is given in
Appendix II., according to the restored text. It will
be enough to give such an analysis for the elder of
the Elohists.
? See Old Testament Theology, vol. ii. The Deuteronomic Ref-
ormation, by the present author. A. and C. Black. London,
1900,
CHAPTER I
THE DEUTERONOMISTS
The Problem and the Clew to Solution.
The old-time theory that Moses wrote the book of
Deuteronomy in the plains of Moab shortly before
his death, needs little effort to dispose of it as mis-
taken. The book describes the death of Moses, and
therefore the theory itself implies an editor who could
have added that notice. But besides, the book as it
stands is not properly a book : it is simply a continu-
ation, with a new heading, of the same book that had
been running on in the last pages of Numbers. The
question arises at once, Where do we really find a
proper beginning for what may be called, or supposed
to be, the “Moab” utterances of Moses? Concern-
ing this question there has been great divergence of
opinion. The divergence is complicated and made
difficult to handle because of a theory now out of date
and evidently mistaken, and yet regarded by some as
the liberal or advanced theory. It is the supposition
that the book was invented by a chief priest named
Hilkiah, who served under King Josiah about the
year 622 B.C. Hilkiah, it is said, wrote it in order
to produce the great reformation of 622. Now it is
very unlikely that the Hilkiah we know from 2 Kings
xxii. ff. should ever have purposed such a reforma-
135
136
THE FORMAL DOCTRINAL TEACHERS
tion, much less likely still that he should have writ-
ten Deuteronomy to help such a movement. He was
a careless priest, and had to feel the force of Josiah’s
reproof, especially by having to give up much in-
come for the sake of repairs that he had neglected.
He who had let the Zion sanctuary decay as he had
done would never be the man to care to make it the
one only noble temple of Yahweh, or to write so fine
an exhortation to godliness and self-denial as we find
in our document. The book, or its sources, must
have come from hands that cared for Yahweh wor-
ship, and for the high moral principles of the great
prophets. In short, it must have followed the Elo-
histic school's work and must have been related to
that in essence. It is unquestionably, in many a
part of it, just a step in advance in the same line of
development of character and purpose. This state-
ment requires little argument, if we but read the chap-
ters of the book.
There can be little done, however, in locating the
origin of the document until we know fairly well what
parts of it are really from one author or another;
that is, until we have tried to analyse it and see
whether the whole is a combination of various works,
as so many other Hebrew books are. This analysis
has been tried by many. But only recently has
there been used a clew that is plain enough when at-
tention is directed to it; viz., that there is a notable
alternation of the 2d. sing. and the 2d. plur. in the
forms of address. Again and again we read “ Thou
art” or “Thou shalt," and the like ; while again we find
the words “Ye are” “Ye shall,” “Ye have been,” etc.
THE DEUTERONOMISTS
137
Of course, such a clew is not to be followed blindly, for
the alternation might occur by accident. Dr. Carl
Steuernagel of Halle University, has recently pub-
lished two careful pamphlets on the matter1 and
although in the former of these he certainly gives
some occasion for the criticism of Carpenter and
Battersby in their “Hexateuch,” that the attempt is
“somewhat hazardous,” yet many, like Moore in
“ Encyclopedia Biblica” will expound Steuernagel's
view with some sympathy. What is hazarded ?
At most the status quo, which is intolerable. Dr.
Steuernagel observes another clew for guidance, lying
among the mass of material directions and exhorta-
tions, all valuable but made mysteriously difficult for
use by their great disorder in arrangement. This
disorder drives one to despair of reasonable under-
standing of Hebrew religious development, unless
there has been some good reason for the disorder.
Steuernagel says, in effect, that the combination of
two sets of rules, and insufficient effort to rearrange
them topically, might produce just such confusion.
Hence his method of unravelling the tangle. There
is a clew to order in the actual disorder itself.
Steuernagel's first work sought to analyse chapters
V.-xi. and xxvii. ff. by use of the first clew only ; viz.,
the separation of singular passages from plural; and
although he did add a comparison of the respective
i Der Rahmen des Deuteronomiums. Literarkritische Unter-
suchung über seine Zusammensetzung u. Entstehung, von Dr.
Carl Steuernagel. Halle, Krause, 1894, and Die Entstehung des
deuteronomischen Gesetzes kritisch u. biblisch-theologisch unter-
sucht, ib. 1896.
138
THE FORMAL DOCTRINAL TEACHERS
vocabularies of the two components thus separated,
yet the result was not so persuading as is that of the
second work. Let us turn to that, which is an an-
alysis of xii.-xxvi.
Here he points to the following phenomena :
There are many doublets, i.e., the same thing said
and said over again in a slightly altered form. And
along with this there are contradictions in these.
There is the variation already mentioned between
the use of " thou" and "you.”
There is the strange disorder in the rules. This
last appears most strikingly in xxi. to xxv.; and here
Steuernagel shows that if we set by themselves in
their present order those passages which may be
called “Laws for Humane Conduct," then these do
stand in a natural order; and so do those that are
left.
Then further, he shows that in the former set
the officers of the community are called “ Judges,"
while in the latter they are called “Elders.” Again
he thinks that the former consist chiefly of short
direct commands, while the latter are more lengthy,
involved sentences in the third person. Finally, for
the idea “neighbour,” the Hebrew word 78, brother,
is used in the first set, while the latter list calls a
“neighbour” by the Hebrew word yn, companion.
After analysing the remaining chapters of the law
(xii.-xxvi.) in accordance with the criteria thus ob-
tained, Steuernagel points out that very probably the
author of the former of the two sets just described,
let us call him “The Judge,” is the same writer who
in v.-xi. uses the second person singular “thou" in
THE DEUTERONOMISTS
139
addressing the people. This "Judge” uses the sin-
gular himself almost exclusively, and, moreover, he
uses many of the same characteristic expressions that
are used by that writer who in v.-xi. uses the singu-
lar pronoun. On the other hand, the author of the
latter of the two sets described above is probably the
one who uses in V.-xi. the plural address, “ you"
(let us call him “the Elder'). He does not always
use the singular in his laws: but then these are
not one code, but rather collections made by him.
They are not really a book from his own pen, as was
the case with the “Judge" document.
Before we now mark out, at least by verses, the
analyses of the whole v.-xxxi. as that would follow
from the criteria so laid down, it must be premised
that not all of Steuernagel's results seem equally
binding; and especially for this reason, that he does
not seem at any time to allow the possibility that
either or both of these works originated in northern
Israel. He is anxious to explain any reference to
Shechem as due to interpolations after Josiah's time.
But why may not these references be due to the
author's desire to centralise worship in and around a
chief sanctuary in the northern kingdom ? The Elo-
hists exalted Shechem in this way. And those Elo-
hists are themselves usually regarded, for various
reasons, as men of the northern kingdom. Hosea,
the prophet of the north, was not only one of the
greatest, best men that Hebraism ever produced ; but
he it is who directly condemns multiplication of
altars. He it is who of all prophets first and chiefly,
save Jeremiah, sets up and presses home the well-
140
THE FORMAL DOCTRINAL TEACHERS
known" Deuteronomic” idea of a covenant between
Yahweh and Israel. Now he seems to consider the
sanctuary at Shechem as one of the most honourable,
if not really the chief sanctuary in all the land. It
is scarcely necessary to point out Shechem's singu-
larly central position and suitability for a place to
which all eyes up and down the country could look.1
It is remarkable that Steuernagel himself expounds
at length and finely the thesis that the author of " the
Judge” element in Deuteronomy gained his ideas
and his inspiration largely from Hosea as distin-
guished from Isaiah. Steuernagel thinks that Isaiah
was rather the suggester of “the Elder” element.
When he then supposes “the Judge” to have
worked and written in Judah under Hezekiah and for
that king's so-called “Reformation," it seems neces-
sary to leave Steuernagel's leading. The evidence
points quite away from his view. Hosea and north-
ern Israel were surely teacher and home of “the
Judge”; while Hezekiah, as we have seen, was no
helper of any true reform, either under Isaiah's in-
fluence or otherwise. We may consider it fairly clear
that at least this "Judge” author lived in Shechem,
or Samaria, before 722 B.C., when the northern king-
dom was destroyed by Assyria.
The settlement of the date is of much less impor-
tance than the discovery that the Deuteronomic
movement or reformation was really of the north,
although the external realisation of it took place in
the south a century later in 622 B.C. by Josiah's
G. A. Smith, Historical Geography of Palestine, chapter vi.,
p. 117.
THE DEUTERONOMISTS
141
establishment of the Deuteronomic law of centralisa-
tion as the constitution of his kingdom. We may,
therefore, look with greater interest at the documents
outlined in their original form (as given in Appendix
III.) as they were composed in Shechem, let us say,
before they were interwoven by an editor into some-
thing more nearly like our present Deuteronomy.
In the matter of analysis we shall follow Steuernagel
largely, though not exclusively, turning away from
him when he places the homes of the authors in
Judah. For the present we set down the following
facts; viz. :
In the “ Judge" document we have:
Benevolence highly appraised and enjoined. This
is equally Amosian and Hosean and Isaian.
Order in administration of justice, in manners
and in worship is also earnestly desired. This is
more distinctively Hosean. But now this call for
order is developed into a demand for Centralisation,
and this is to be centralisation on the basis of-not
so much one deity but-one Yahweh. Unity in the
state in all its respects was to be gained by the
recognition, in the thought and practices of all, that
there was one Yahweh, their father, fellow-tribes-
man and head, the same for all families and gates or
towns in Israel. There should not be different wor-
ships, different cults, nor even different sanctuaries ;
all of which distracted concentration of thought about
the divine, and also dislocated the moral sense and the
conduct. One sanctuary, so thought these Deuter-
onomists, would correct such evil. And that one
sanctuary should be Shechem.
LO
142
THE FORMAL DOCTRINAL TEACHERS
All this was threaded through and through with
the words and the very ideas and spirit of the
prophet Hosea.
The other “Elder ” document was less theological
and more popular, more narrative and less regulative,
more commanding and less pleading, more Amos-
like and Isaiah-like, more really near to J, at least
in its stage of development, than the “Judge" docu-
ment was.
In fine, it seems that this eighth century B.C. was
throbbing through and through with busy thought
in many busy thinkers concerning religion and duty.
One feels that this surely ought to have been the
case in a time that could produce the four prophets
of the period and an audience fit to listen to them
and preserve their words. The easily accepted tra-
ditional fancy-for it is not a reasoned theory-
that the four prophets were the only thoughtful men,
or almost the only thoughtful ones, proves really
unthinkable when one reflects on it. An epoch like
750 to 700 B.C. could produce, nay must have pro-
duced, a very university of theological and ethical
life and utterance. And we need not be in the
least hesitant in supposing that they might make rapid
advances in theorising. The people who produced
an Elohistic school were most fertile and fit to pro-
duce many Deuteronomists in a generation's course.
We turn then to set down our estimate of the the-
ology and ethics of this period, including, those of
both the Elohistic and the more strictly Deuteronomic
stages in the Formal, or Reforming Movement.
CHAPTER II
THEOLOGY AND ETHICS OF THE FORMAL TEACHERS
It is clear that the root of all this literary expres-
sion in the Elohistic and Deuteronomic schools was
a very much awakened sense of moral need. This is
manifest in the constant saying of the Elohists, “Our
god is testing us, proving us.” There is a deep
sense, not merely that they have done their many
past sins, but that they are not quite sure that they
may not sin again. There is a sense of unsafe char-
acter and moral need. The Deuteronomists' emphatic
way of putting this is their pleading that the chil-
dren be not neglected, but be taught lest the gen-
eration to come remain low, or fall low and be lost.
There is in all a desire for an improved, civic, fam-
ily, and personal life.
The first and nearest consequent thought is that
Yahweh is one who lifts them up. The power
making for righteousness is a great fact. God, who
is very real now, is a god and not man. Men had
thought of Yahweh as an ordinary clansman. But a
blaze of terrifying consciousness has come over them
and they find themselves far from him. He tells
them they must rise, and they feel they must obey;
this is his “command.”
The thought dawns that he is more than they
fancied: they have not known what he is. With the
143
144
THE FORMAL DOCTRINAL TEACHERS
now knowledge there arises the new idea of possible
progress in revelation. Naturally they do not set the
date of this at their own time, but suppose that their
god revealed himself at the Exodus in an utterly new
character, as Yahweh. These writers are, however,
not altogether carried away by this theory; they
think that the name “Yahweh” was not used fully
even after that revelation. Not all rose to it. In-
deed, as Yahweh's character had been a far-off thing
before that, so ever since only a few had truly grasped
it. Did not Amos preach that he was not in the
sanctuaries for all men, but only for the seekers of
good? And Hosea had preached that he was away
from the sacred city and almost minded to return to
destroy it. A few persons, Moses and some like him,
a family like Levi, officers duly ordained, had stood
near him; in certain places, and one especially of his
choosing, he had loved to be seen and known. It
was impossible for those men in that age to grasp
the idea of a transcendental divine spirit: so certain
things, as well as persons, appeared more exclusively
his wondrous agents. But now the Deuteronomists
advance further in the path of progress, and add, Our
god is El-Qanna, “Deity-ever-jealous.” We have
thought of a Yahweh here and another Yahweh there.
This pains him. We must confine our thought of his
presence to the one wonderful place, where we are
sure he does choose to abide; otherwise we are in
awful danger. So let Shechem alone be his place of
manifestation at our feasts." They conceive his char-
acter as that of the deity who cares for them indeed,
their own Elohim, who is absolutely alone, summing
THEOLOGY OF THE FORMAL TEACHERS 145
up in himself all the many powers that they had sup-
posed to be diverse. These are not now to be viewed
as a plurality but as One. And his care is manifest in
his preference of the one place, and the one kind of
worship that is observed at Shechem and in his gifts
of statutes and directions whereby he may prove them
and save them. That was their theology.
Now what were men to do? What were their
ethics? They were above all to be a thoughtful, an
ever more and more educated people. They believed
the very Decalogue was not a fixed, unalterable thing.
Different forms of it had been given; or at least,
different true interpretations of its mystic signs had
been revealed. It is clear to us to-day that even the
final Decalogue is not a perfect logical compend of all
moral obligation, but was rather a selection of those
great points of duty that had filled most largely
the general religious mind during this age. The
people had grown morally awake and those needs
that pressed first were, to wit: due reverence for
Yahweh, the distant god, not to be meanly rep- :
resented; due acts and days of orderly worship;
clan-reverence; due regard for life, property, sex, and
character of neighbours. But there followed the nota-
ble demand made by all those writers that the Dec-
alogue must be supplemented. Whether a generation
must pass away and Moab was the place to see this,
or whether Horeb itself was the place; in either case,
then as always, tables of rules have to be enlarged;
codes must be added. Nay, more, men fit to be the
enlargers, the further lawgivers, were always to be
raised up by Yahweh for his people's help. But
YY
146
THE FORMAL DOCTRINAL TEACHERS
documents must be used; writing had become the
sacred material means of divine revelation. So it
has always been, and the “Second Laws” of the
Deuteronomists were the forerunners of the Orders
of Ezekiel and of the Priestly school, and of the
Elders and their Mishnah and their Gemara long
after. And what else are our Books of Discipline,
our creeds, but second sets of sacred law needed
wherever written law is made. Indeed, our Parlia-
ments are proof that written law must be, and that it
must be forever amended.
In those Elohistic and Deuteronomic minds the
claims of order for ceremonial worship did not bulk
largely: the work of Amos and his fellows had left
that well in the background. The main demands
were for everyday life which was to be full of love,
reasoning, teaching, and civil organisation. Such were
the ethics of those writers.
But we must note the essential and pervading limi-
tations in their theology and ethics, and see how
those very limitations were fertile and would insure
enlargement.
First, the inception of the faith that divine guid-
ance was given by and in documents was a limita-
tion. It presumed to hem in the mind from essential
interaction with the mind of God. The mind of
every man must go on communing with the divine
mind. Literary men would touch with editing pen
the documents they read, however holy they were.
New documents were the inevitable products of the
older ones. Nay, more, the documents claiming to
be Yahweh's words had to be commended to the peo-
THEOLOGY OF THE FORMAL TEACHERS 147
ple before they would accept them. The argumenta-
tion that had to be added was as divine as the docu-
ments: new divine words had to come.
But again, the concentration of worship in one
place was a limitation that brought its own rescind-
ing. “Worship in one place,” said the document;
“and in all your homes teach your children to love
Yahweh with all their being.” Plainly, to a child
teaching would be a manifestation of God. And the
theory that Yahweh would manifest himself in Shech-
em only was thus at once thoroughly annulled. The
child was to bow before the loving God at home, al-
though he could not share in the far-away worship of
the feast. The same is to be said of the limitation
of God to companionship with certain singularly en-
dowed and favoured men, or a family, or of the limi-
tation of His action, or at least His most divine
action to the occasions when a certain wonder-rod
was swayed. This very limiting led men to think of
the god; they felt they were not alone. The limita-
tion burst itself. God speaks, who can but hear? cried
Amos; and he was a prophet, a man truly inspired,
although he said, as taught by the theology of the
times, that he was no prophet!
Finally, it is remarkable that the whole movement
ULI
something transcendent, one who was “a god and
not man,” above the material earth and the ways of
earthly men, not to be seen with the bodily eye, but
in the visions of the soul, and yet the way of the in-
coming of this doctrine was through the linking of God
to certain wonderful, material things, instruments,
148
THE FORMAL DOCTRINAL TEACHERS
places, men. Strange surely, advance is claimed,
yet men seem to go backward. Yet the movement
toward transcendence had started ; and if simple
souls in the first overwhelmed moments of the in-
coming consciousness that “He is far above," did
reel in feeble fashion, they were going forward, and
should see better when the dazzling light grew more
wonted, and out of the material they rose to the
reality of the spiritual. For to think at all about
faults in one's self or people and to dream of a higher
ideal than the past, to guess at the unseen who
demands righteousness—all this is new birth into
spiritual manhood. The Elohistic and Deutero-
nomic schools or school marked a wide awakening,
a wonderful advance of many people, and a great
step forward in the life of realised religion and good-
ness. Such were the theology and ethics of this
large class.
PART V
THE THEOLOGY AND ETHICS OF THE
PERIOD OF POLITICAL REORGAN-
ISATION IN JUDAH
FROM 700 TO 600 B.C.
CHAPTER I
THE CENTURY
The first great fact of these times is that in them a
religious impulse changed the whole face of affairs
among the people we call Hebrews. Here we might
begin to say they were Jews rather than Hebrews :
for the little tribe of Judah and a few companion fam-
ilies in the mountainous south were now all that was
left of old Israel since the northern kingdom fell in
722 B.C. Just a century after that, in 622 B.C., the
little kingdom of Judah made a complete revolution
in its constitution, its worship, and its homes, and
based its action on the Deuteronomic ideas, and on
some one or other of the documents that we have
just been studying. This remarkable event has
moulded the Jews ever since, and become the very
centre of all their formal, religious being; and it has
also very deeply affected all our Christianity.
But such epoch-making events do not occur quite
independently of other far-reaching movements, and
149
150 POLITICAL REORGANISATION IN JUDAH
examination shows quickly that many forces were
tending to excite and to aid this one occurrence in
Judah. The actions and experiences of great nations
all around this little one were, at the same time, un-
commonly serious. The reformation of Hebraism
took place in the very midst of tremendous catas-
trophes. Assyria fell forever just then. Her rival
Egypt tried to snatch the succession, but failed mis-
erably. The world-empire was grasped by the prov-
ince of Babylon that had long lain prostrate beneath
the feet of Assyria; but soon, in her turn, Babylonia
also fell before the new kingdom of Medo-Persia.
What throbbing of the world's pulse was all this !
Surely all men must have cried : “God have mercy
on us,” “What must we do to be saved ?” Here
doubtless was a time of fever heat in the theological
and moral thinking of the peoples.
But, further, Assyria fell just when she had been
at a most brilliant height of her glory; and her
strange overturning was wrought apparently by an
entirely new factor in the world's history, a power
reaching out from the very unseen, one of those great
invasions of semi-barbarous hordes that have again
and again altered the face of the known earth. Here
was enough to strike out, as it did, the fine flashes of
power that we read in Nahum and Zephaniah, and
the grander bright light of Jeremiah; for the invaders
marched from fallen Nineveh away down the coast of
Palestine, but a few miles distant from little Zion,
perched in comparative security 2,000 feet above that
coast road yet terrified by the sight of the wild men.
A look at Assyria will show us that all men there
THE CENTURY
151
in those days were remarkably ready to think relig-
iously, and to say as they saw the wild Scythian
hordes, “ What hath God wrought?”
There were three renowned warrior emperors in
Assyria in this century: Sennacherib (705-681), Esar-
haddon (681-668), and Assurbanipal, sometimes called
Sardanapalus (668–626). The first of the three was
a great conqueror; but he found time, and had ability
to train his successor, his third son Esarhaddon in
military respects to even a higher pitch of ability
than he himself attained, and also to give him a nota-
bly gracious character, and a very kindly disposition
toward all religions. Esarhaddon's activity ended
when, after thirteen years of rule, he abdicated in
favor of his son Assurbanipal. Probably he was so
religious as to become ascetic, and was thus led to re-
tire from the cares of state. His son and follower as
emperor, is a still more important figure. He was,
indeed, a great soldier, but far greater was his other
service to the world. It was he who built up the
library that has been discovered at Kuyunjik. As
Assyriologists translate its tablets for us, we find a
rich store of works on religion as well as on many an-
other field of knowledge ; and this tells us that religion,
and thought about religion, and documents concern-
ing the same were matters of utmost importance to this
emperor. Of course, so also they must have been to
his people, and likewise to the many provinces and
dependencies under his influence.
But suddenly all the Assyrian activity ceased.
Assurbanipal ruled long, busily conquering, studying,
recording the life of his empire, and of all the world
152 POLITICAL REORGANISATION IN JUDAH
he touched; and then suddenly we find his annals fall-
ing into confusion and silence. The people from far
Tartary and farther Russia, whom Herodotus calls
Sluthoi, brought final ruin to him and his work, his
city, and his empire.
It is necessary to note one further feature of the
times and their catastrophes. Assyria's world-rule
meant the rise of the conviction in Assyria that all
nations could be ruled as one whole. Of course
the Assyrian believed that he was the fit ruler and
centre of all, but the great religious fact in this is the
belief in One system in the world, and necessarily one
law, one guidance, one supreme God. All men were
nearing the same faith. When Assyria fell, Egypt
claimed the right to succeed her : therefore Egypt,
too, believed in a unity in the world. So did Baby-
lon, which fought Egypt and gained the world-rule.
And so did Medo-Persia, which did the like ere long.
But little Judah believed the same. When Egypt
passed north in 609 B.C. across the plain of Megiddo,
in her hope to take the imperial crown, the petty
sheik of Judah-we call him commonly King Josiah
-marched out to prevent Egypt and her King Pha-
raoh-Necho. Josiah fell, no wonder to us : but it was
a wonder to him and his little host and people. Why?
How did he come to and cherish the dream that he
and his god, forsooth, should be the rulers of all
men? It was because he had accepted with all his
heart the documents and doctrine of the Deuterono-
mists that Yahweh was the real lord of all men, and
the god of the whole earth. The religious move-
ment that we have traced up to its highest moral
THE CENTURY
153
height in the prophets, to its formal crystallisation in
the Elohists, and its vision of unification in one sanc-
tuary according to the Deuteronomists,—this long
rise found its rightful climax, on one side at least, in
the self-sacrifice of the chief representative Hebrew
for the attainment of his Deuteronomic political ideal.
Josiah believed God led him. He was not wrong.
Soon afterward another representative Hebrew did
speak out the watchword by which all the world has
really been ruled; but this man, a poor slave in
Babylon, saw more clearly than the king Josiah the
kind of battle that was to be fought, the kind of realm
that was to be won and built and swayed. This
later Hebrew was the Suffering Servant of God,
whose requiem and rising again are sung in Isa. liii.
CHAPTER II
JOSIAH'S REFORMATION.
At the end of our study of Isaiah and the religion
of the eighth century, we left King Hezekiah on the
throne. He had foolishly resisted the guidance of
Isaiah and brought direct sorrow upon himself and
his land. Hezekiah reigned on, a tolerated subject
of Assyria, until about 697 B.C.
Manasseh, son of Hezekiah, succeeded him. He
was able to hold his throne from 697 until 642; i.e.,
fifty-five years. This implies a kindly government
of his people and wisdom to serve acceptably his
Assyrian chiefs, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and As-
surbanipal. With nineteen other princes he was
compelled by Esarhaddon to bring material to Nin-
eveh for the emperor's buildings. 2 Kings says he
was held there for a time as prisoner, and condemns
many religious practices that were common under
him. The writer of this story of his life in Kings
was deeply influenced by the spirit of the reforma-
tion that was accomplished by King Josiah ; there-
fore we may conclude that in his view religion from
700 down to 640—i.e., at least all through Manasseh's
reign-had been steadily growing more unlike what
this later writer approved. While in Assyria, Ma-
nasseh had learned Assyrian ways. Doubtless he
brought back Assyrian customs of worship and ways
154
JOSIAH'S REFORMATION
155
of thinking and also much regard for the Imperial
gods.
Many have held the theory that it was by the
official religious men of this very period under Ma-
nasseh, that the plan of Josiah's reformation was de-
vised. There can be no doubt that the reformation
was in reality the outcome of the moral and religious
influences at work all through the past and at work
also during this century. But during Manasseh's
reign all the influences which caused the schools of
Elohists and of Deuteronomists were opposed by
the official religious men and their ways. Manasseh
and his officers were good in their way, but they
were not eager for religious advance along the Elo-
histic or Deuteronomic lines.
Manasseh reigned fifty years and died in 642.
His son Amon succeeded him, but was assassinated
by a palace conspiracy within two years. The old
murderous spirit that had done so much to ruin
Israel a century before was rife in the court. It
speaks for Manasseh's ability that he kept this spirit,
in restraint; and the story that the whole people
were indignant at the assassination of the new
king Amon and at once brought the evil-doers to
justice is further evidence that the nation as a
whole was in a fairly orderly state when Manasseh
died.
All the more surprising is the report of what fol-
lowed. The nation as a whole was in fairly good
order. But evidently they were becoming discon-
tented with official and traditional ways. The priests
were a careless set of men. Josiah on his accession
156 POLITICAL REORGANISATION IN JUDAH
was a child of eight years; city and temple must have
been thoroughly controlled by these officials. Not
until he was twenty-six years of age do we read of
efforts to repair the temple of Zion, which had fallen
sadly into disorder in the hands of the courtly and
priestly officials. The king had to take severe meas-
ures to compel the priests to restore their sanctuary.
When, therefore, it is argued that these, and espe-
cially their chief Hilkiah, planned and carried
through the reformation by which this temple was
made the most important institution in the land, we
are forced to say that that is very improbable.
What did happen ? During the restoration of the
sacred edifice a manuscript was found. Doubtless
there were many such treasures lying in store-rooms
in the building. There are ever and anon such dis-
coveries made to-day. Recently great finds of man-
uscripts have been made in the monasteries in
Arabia. The manuscript brought to light startled
the finders and readers. Its purport must certainly
have been germane to the general tendency of the
times, else they would have given it little heed. It
contained heavy threats of Yahweh's displeasure
against the nation unless they should undertake cer-
tain changes in their religious customs.
The king sought at once an oracle from Yahweh
to determine its validity. After the oracular reply,
which was given by an elderly woman living at a
secondary sanctuary, the king called a general assem-
bly and read to them the newly found manuscript.
Thereupon the assembly covenanted that a reforma-
tion should be made according to its requirements.
JOSIAH'S REFORMATION
157
The actual innovations made in consequence of this
covenant were in brief these:
All Yahweh sanctuaries outside of Zion were an-
nulled ; their ministers were brought to Zion, if they
would come, and were allowed to serve at the altar
there.
All sanctuaries of deities other than Yahweh, with-
in or without Zion, were desecrated. The instru-
ments of Baal-worship, star-worship, and lust-wor-
ship, the Ashera 1 posts, and the pillars marking the
places where the theophany had been experienced
were destroyed.
An entirely new fashion of holding the Passover
feast was established.
Let us now set together the features revealed by
the story (2 Kings xxii. f.) of the sort of religion
prevalent among the Hebrews in general before the
reformation and when they undertook it.
There seem to bave been two shrines in Zion.
The worship in Zion, in so far as it was genuine
Yahweh worship, was altogether different from that
which the newly discovered document demanded. A
change took place even among good religious folk.
There was much worship in Zion, and in the very
temple, that startles us as we read of it. There was the
Asherah, i.e., a pole or symbol of a tree or of the god
Ashur; and it had its sacrificial paraphernalia. So
also there were instruments for worship of a Ba'al, i.e.,
1 Was the Asherah worship a Judæan sort of Ashur-worship, an
effort to win to their aid the mighty Assyrian war-god Ashur,
whose symbol in his own land was a portable pole with a sort of
human head ?
158 POLITICAL REORGANISATION IN JUDAH
a masculine deity of lordship and of fertility; and
the like also for worship of many stars.
In the city and the land there were oracle mongers
of the nature of ventriloquists and wizards. There
were many teraphs or sacred images, but these teraphs
might be such as Hosea honoured. There were others
that are contemptuously called “rolling blocks” and
many things called “disgusting” by the narrator.
The high-priest knew all about these; and no
doubt he had power to remove them if he had
wished, during the long minority of the king. But
the king had to order this high-priest to make good
the money revenues of the temple and pay these out
for the repairs. The high-priest not only left the
document lying unheeded in the temple, but is also
described as showing no anxiety about it when dis-
covered. This high-priest headed the deputation
sent to consult the oracle concerning the document,
but this deputation consulted neither Zephaniah nor
Jeremiah. If these prophets were of the same mind
as the author of Deuteronomy, it is inconceivable that
the high-priest was in any way responsible for it.
Let us now set down the evidence that the manu-
script which was found was Deuteronomy, or a part
of it. In 2 Kings xxii. ff., the document found is de-
scribed as “The book of the law," a phrase which is
used frequently in Deuteronomy of the directions
supposed to have been given by Moses in the land of
Moab. Its contents are called “the words of the law”
in the Kings story; so also does Deuteronomy speak
of its own contents.?
Cf. 2 Kings xxii. 8, etc., with Deut. xvii. 18, etc.
JOSIAH'S REFORMATION
159
The manuscript is described in Kings as including
“a certain covenant," and we read of "the words of the
book of the covenant,” and of " directions and testi-
monies and statutes” which it contained. These are
the very expressions used again and again in Deuter-
onomy concerning its own prescriptions.?
2 Kings xxiii. 3 says that the people and king
made a covenant to “guard all Yahweh's command-
ments and his testimonies and his statutes with all
their heart (mind) and with all their soul (life).”
These again are the terms used by Deuteronomy con-
cerning itself.?
The reformers proceeded, says 2 Kings, to burn
an Asherah and all the instruments the people had
for Ashera-worship and Baal-worship and to remove
all ventriloquists and wizards. This is what Deuter-
onomy prescribes.3
The king, as he hears the manuscript read, is filled
with apprehension lest the “wrath of Yahweh may
come upon the nation because their fathers have not
listened to these words.” These are exactly the same
expressions that would be suggested in Deuteronomy.4
Most important of all is the feature that the centrali-
sation of worship was proclaimed by King Josiah and
accepted by all the people; and that this is the kernel
of Deuteronomy. This centralisation is the chief
characteristic feature in both records. According to
Cf. 2 Kings xxiii. 3 with Deut. iv. 45 ; v. 1, 3, 31; vi. 1 f., 17,
20; xi. 1; xii. 1; xxvi. 16 ff.; etc., etc.
2 Deut. vi. 5; XXX. 10, etc.
3 Deut. xii. 3, xiii. I ff., xvi. 21; xvii. 3 ; xviii. 10 ff.
4 Cf. 2 Kings xxii. 13 with Deut. xxix. 20-28; xxx. 17 ff.
160 POLITICAL REORGANISATION IN JUDAH
2 Kings this centralisation was specially accomplished
by the new procedure in the passover which was held
not in every town and home in the land, but in Jeru-
salem and only there. This is the very demand of
Deuteronomy.1
No doubt the original record which was the basis
of 2 Kings xxii. f. has been re-edited and enlarged but
the points enumerated are original, and they lead to
the conclusion that the manuscript that was found
was a part of our present book of Deuteronomy. We
have already learned that there are various elements
in that book. That one which uses mostly the singular
“thou” and exalts the “ Judges " rather than the
“Elders,"contains pleadings and warnings adapted to
move Josiah and his people as 2 Kings says they were
moved. The manuscript of Josiah cannot have con-
tained all our present composite book, for that is far
too long to be read through at a sitting. A simple
calculation of the verses or words in Deuteronomy,
and of those in the "Judges" document, shows how
natural it is to suppose that a part of the present book,
and for other reasons the “ Judges” part, was the
manuscript. Therefore we conclude that this was the
Charter of the Reformation. And now it follows that
the people of Judah at large had come to the stage of
progress where they could, in at least this general
sense, be said to hold the same theology and ethics
that we found in the Elohistic and Deuteronomic
schools.
1 Deut. xvi. 1-8.
CHAPTER III
NAHUM AND ZEPHANIAH
.
THESE two heralds of the Josian reformation con-
firm our view that many Hebrews of the middle of
the seventh century were religiously awake and saw
the dangers on the political horizon that aroused the
deep voice of conscience, bidding them seek God
and find safety. These two prophets worked during
the twenty years in which Assurbanipal was failing
and Josiah was growing on toward his maturity and
his reforming work.
Manifestly about the year 640 or a little later, the
tidings reached Judah that the hosts of Scythians
had overwhelmed the Assyrian capital.? Had Na-
hum himself seen the deeds of those barbarians that
he so vividly describes, the blood red shields, the
rushing horses, and wheels with outstretched scythes
mowing down all before them ? Had he watched
the Assyrian queen and her maidens carried away
in dishonour ? Had he seen the devastated city
and the Scythians leaping away like grasshoppers at
sunrise to fresh fields for devouring ? Had he seen
the poor Assyrians treading clay, wet with their own
tears, that they might build up again some of the
1 For full analysis and estimate see the author's Old Testa-
ment Theology, vol. ii.
2 Nineveh fell Cir. 607.-(Craig.]
161
162 POLITICAL REORGANISATION IN JUDAH
fallen defences? Either he had seen or had heard of
it from eye-witnesses. He proclaimed it all to be a
deed of divine favour toward Judah. The jealous
fury of Yahweh was saving her from her old slave
mistress.
But a decade rolled by and Zephaniah stood on
the hills about Jerusalem and saw the invaders
trampling down the low coast lands. They were
hurrying everywhere. He expected that they would
ruin Egypt and then march north again devastating
the coast, and why not all Judah and Jerusalem? Yet
the prophet seemed to think safety possible. Just as
Isaiah saw that the hilltop city, Jerusalem, might be
left untouched, so Zephaniah saw and trusted.
The main features of the religion of the time, as
seen in these two men and their little books we may
now formulate. Nahum thinks of Yahweh as ruler
over all gods and peoples. He is also the storm god
and a jealous, fierce deity. But his fierce passion is
closely akin to his devoted love for his own folk.
Nahum knows also a correlate to this love : there
are about him some who truly trust Yahweh. A
golden thread is woven through Nahum's dread ora-
cles. Zephaniah seems at first sight more occupied
with the condition of men than with the ways of
Yahweh. The way of men is sad, fearful, fatal.
There was a class, how large or few we do not know,
whom Zephaniah calls “the bowing ones," and he
suggests that they submit to ill-treatment respecting
their landed rights. Evidently the economic con-
dition of Judah was bad, similar to that denounced
by Isaiah in chap. v., where some were described as
NAHUM AND ZEPHANIAH
163
joining field to field until they must ere long be ac-
tually alone in the land. Amos had pointed to some
such evils coming. Isaiah tells of their fatal spread.
Seventy-five years later, Zephaniah feels that the
case is almost hopeless ; good men bow to it as
Yahweh's “strange ordinance.” Zephaniah is not a
very clear thinker about methods of regeneration.
He feels indeed that Amos's demand for goodness
was too indefinite, and therefore he cries “Yes, seek
goodness, but do this by seeking humility,” for that
is evidently submission to Yahweh. This would of
course be fatalism and fatal to life. However, the
prophet discovers a safe course by falling back on the
Amosian faith that Yahweh is the god of righteous-
ness. Therefore, he exhorts to follow Yahweh, the
unfailingly good. The Day of Yahweh will be an
awful day, as Amos prophesied; yet it will be also a
time of surest comfort. Yahweh will bring purity,
comfort, life.
Such were the sort of men and the sort of ideas
that Josiah could depend upon to work a real moral
reformation, while his high-priest Hilkiah looked on
indifferently.
CHAPTER IV
THE THEOLOGY AND ETHICS OF JEREMIAH
The Critic of the Reformation.
JEREMIAH, with whom Jesus is said in the Gospel
of Matthew to have been identified, is commonly and
wrongfully spoken of as the "weeping prophet,” be-
cause of his plaint in chap. ix. 1 f. He felt pro-
foundly the pitiful state of his countrymen, but he
was a man and no whimperer. He was keen of con-
science and possessed a strong sense of his own in-
dividuality and personality unlike the conceptions
of earlier days when men thought only of the tribe.
“Conscience condemns each one of us," was his cry,
“but Yahweh is near to help each personally."
Here we may anticipate a little to say that the lyric
songs of Isa. xli., xlix., li., liii., in honour of the true
servant of Yahweh probably meant a real individual
person, because they evidently had Jeremiah in mind,
as we may see by the similarity in speech and thought
of Isa. liii. 1, 7, 8, and Jer. xi. 18, 19.
Most important for us to consider is Jeremiah's
way of dealing with the Deuteronomic reformation. -
Were all Hebrews to be satisfied with the Deutero-
nomic plan? Why must the answer be negative, and
why do we call Jeremiah the critic of the reformation ?
The question calls for an analysis of the book. The
164
THEOLOGY AND ETHICS OF JEREMIAH
165
list of the dates here given will enable the reader to
hold in chronological relation the stages of thought
that we are trying to grasp.
....................
The last great Assyrian Emperor, Assurbanipal,
ruled from ..........................B.O. 668–626.
The Scythians poured south over Media, Nin-
eveh, and Syria to Egypt from .....
...... 640-630.
Josiah was king and in his minority..
640-627.
He reigned until...
609.
Nahum preached......
640 onward.
Zephaniah preached.....
630 onward.
Jeremiah preached....
......... 627–588,
i.e., 40 years.
The empire of Babylon was established by
Nabopolassar. ......
... 624.
Nineveh was destroyed about.....
.. 610.
Pharaoh Necho marched north and Josiah
opposed him and fell.................... 609.
Jehoahaz, or Shallum, his son, succeeded him. 609.
Pharaoh deposed this king and appointed his
brother Jehoiakim as governor........... 609-600.
Pharaoh Necho fell before Nebuchadnezzar.... 606-605.
Nebuchadnezzar succeeded Nabopolassar as
emperor.........
..... 605.
Judah revolted from Babylon ....
603.
Jehoiakim died and his son Jehoiachin or Jeco-
niah was made king ......... ........ 600.
Jerusalem fell before Nebuchadnezzar, and the
king with “10,000 best” were carried
away.......................
Zedekiah, son of Josiah, reigned ............. 599-588.
Ezekiel appeared as preacher in Babylon...... 594.
Jeremiah disappeared ..
. 587.
......
.....
599.
...............
...
1 Several of these dates are only closely approximate, the data
necessary for their exact determination are not at hand.—[Craig. ]
166 POLITICAL REORGANISATION IN JUDAH
We turn now to an analytical account of Jeremiah's
discourses.
At the outset we meet a singular fact. We possess
two different editions of the book and both are in
much disorder. Our English version follows the
Hebrew text. But a cursory glance will show that the
sermons are not arranged there chronologically. The
reader finds passages dating from Josiah's reign, 627–
609 B.C., followed by passages dating from the latest
years of the reign of Zedekiah, 599-588. Thus, e.g.,
we find ch. xxi. dated under Zedekiah; we turn a page
and ch. xxii. speaks of Jehoahaz who reigned a few
months in 609 and then was exiled, and of Jehoiakim
who reigned 609 to 600 as both still active. It seems
then to imply that Jeconiah is ruling, who ruled a few
months in 600-599. So ch. xxiv. speaks of the cap-
tivity of 599 as accomplished and Zedekiah as ruling,
i.e., 599-588. But ch. XXV. goes back to describe
what Jeremiah preached in the fourth year of Jehoia-
kim, 605; while ch. xxvi. goes farther back, even to
the beginning of Jehoiakim's government in 609.
So, too, ch. xxvii. seems to do at first; but in the
middle of the chapter we are again with Zedekiah.
Thus the Hebrew text needs considerable rearrange-
ment to make it a chronological picture of the proph-
et's words and work. So, of course, we must rear-
range the chapters of our English Bible. They all
show plainly that they have been bundled together, as
it were, by accident. Here is a clear case for the
critic or student; and indeed an easy problem for him.
But when this rearrangement is made we shall not
then be out of difficulty. We turn to the Septuagint
THEOLOGY AND ETHICS OF JEREMIAH
167
version made by the Jews dwelling in Egypt from
300 B.C. onward, and there we find a very different
book. The Greek work is much shorter than the
Hebrew, containing about seven-eighths of the utter-
ances of the latter. And, furthermore, the order of
chapters in the two is not at all the same. Chaps.
i.-xxiv. and lii. are numbered alike in both. Chaps.
XXV.-xxxii. in Greek do not correspond to any contin-
uous part of the Hebrew. Chaps. xxxiii.-li. in Greek
are nearly the same as chaps. xxvi. xlv. of the Hebrew.
All this has theological and ethical significance. It
throws light upon the religious mind of the people
who first read Jeremiah. It is evident that the Jews
themselves, both in Judea and in Egypt, felt free to
rearrange the oracles of the prophet if they chose, to
omit passages or insert them according to their idea
of their importance.
For an outline analysis and rearrangement of the
text in chronological order see Appendix IV.
We turn now to the leading features of the oracles
and first to those which seem to have been written
down in 605 B.C., the fifth year of Jehoiachin. Ob-
serve the importance of the date. Nineveh, and As-
syria with it, had fallen in 610 B.c. before the allied
Babylonians and Medes. At once Pharaoh-Necho,
King of Egypt, marched away to try to seize the now
vacant imperial throne. King Josiah went out to
prevent Pharaoh. He was moved, partly perhaps
by loyalty to his old suzerain Assyria, partly no
doubt by his Deuteronomic faith. It was just about
twelve years since he and his folk had covenanted
to be Yahweh's people in a new, higher and better
168 POLITICAL REORGANISATION IN JUDAH
way; and that way seemed to be coupled with assur-
ances of Yahweh's material help to success in earthly
affairs. No doubt Josiah felt sure he would be helped
of heaven, and his hundreds would put Egypt's ten
thousands to flight. He fought Egypt on the plain
of Megiddo, a battle ever since regarded by devout
Jews as the beginning of the final war between
heaven and hell, and of the victory of good over evil.
The last great conflict is to be there, upon Ar-Maged-
don, as it is called in the Book of Revelation. But
Josiah's effort failed: he was slain on this battlefield.
Instead of his faith proving correct that Deuteron-
omy and his reformation were pledges of certain suc-
cess he himself disappeared, Pharaoh seized Judah,
deposed Josiah's heir Jehoahaz, laid a heavy tax on
the people ? and installed a prince of his own choice.
Jeremiah was not disheartened. He predicted
that Egypt would not prove a match for Babylon,
the rival candidate for the world-empire. And he
proved correct in his expectation ; for three years later,
in 606-5 B.C., the two claimants met and fought out
the decisive conflict at Carchemish in the northwest-
ern regions of the Euphrates, and Egypt fell. The
Nile was henceforth a dependency of the Euphrates
for three hundred years.
Jeremiah had eyes to see the reality of things.
Egypt was unfit for the conflict. No wonder that the
prophet now became a popular man in 606 B.C. He
1 Rev. xvi. 16.
2 About £50,000 or $250,000. 2 Kings xxiii. 33. The little
country so taxed was about forty miles square, and not fertile.
Perhaps the narrator is exaggerating.
THEOLOGY AND ETHICS OF JEREMIAH
169
says he had been very timid as a lad, but surely Yah-
weh had inspired him to preach against princes and
peoples and would be with him to deliver him. His
words began to be prized and a collection was made
of reminiscences of what he had been preaching for
the past twenty-two years. This collection included
probably most of what we have in the groups marked
I, a, b, c, d, in our Appendix IV.
Of these passages, ch. i. contains, besides what we
have described, one feature which is of first importance
in the story of Hebrew theology. The preacher be-
lieves in a divine care for himself individually. Here
is the first of a series of great advances that Jeremiah
made. Isaiah had held up as a symbol of his high-
est faith the name Immanu-El, which means “there
is a deity with us.” Isaiah still stood on the elder
side of the border line between highest religious val-
uation of the community, the clan-blood, and highest
religious valuation of the individual, the soul. Jere-
miah was on the younger side of the line. He pro-
claimed the new era. No wonder if we find other
great advances in his own work, and greater advances
still just after him in men that he inspired.
The second set of passages, chaps. ii.-vi., belong
nearly to one date, and stand, probably, pretty nearly
in their original order. Their notable characteris-
tics are:
Their dependence on Hosea in their appeals to the
lessons of the youthful days of the Hebrews; also in
their condemnations of unchastity; in their desire to
do away with all idea of Yahweh as one of the ba'ai
deities, i.e., a source of agricultural blessings; and,
170 POLITICAL REORGANISATION IN JUDAH
finally, in their polemic against many sanctuaries.
The tenderness of Jeremiah is also that of Hosea
over again.
The group is full of echoes of the noise of the ter-
rible Scythians.
The discourses plead for the Deuteronomic plan
of Josiah. See especially iii. 14, and v. 17; if it is
genuine, Zion towers up as the one sanctuary.
The preacher goes so far in ch. iii. 16 as to decry the
“ark,” the old casket, in which the sacred slabs from
Horeb or Sinai were preserved. Evidently the slabs
and casket used to journey about from place to place.
That was indeed a unifying factor, but it is now to
be superseded.
The discourses of the next group are more severe.
And first we find chaps. xi., xii., xviii. In these we
discover the words on which the wonderful hymn of
Isaiah liii. is based. Jeremiah was led as a sheep to
the slaughter. Men thought to cut him off from life
and remembrance. He had doubtless gone all about
the land preaching the gospel of the new Deutero-
nomic covenant, as Cheyne points out; and this would
be resented by the lovers of the old sanctuaries. So
the men of Anathoth, his own home, and an old
sanctuary, were especially vicious against him. Jere-
miah was, of course, doing damage to their interests.
But the passages show that the prophet himself could
be cruel in cursing.
In xviii. we see another of Jeremiah's advances,
based indeed on Hosea. He loves to study the mind.
Certainly he is a man of his time, and has an almost
Mohammedan belief in Fate. But he begins to ask
UU
THEOLOGY AND ETHICS OF JEREMIAH 171
what will is. Thus he makes notable psychological
advances.
Passing to chaps. vii.-x. we see how his thinking
leads him forward. He rises now above and away
from the Deuteronomic faith. He declares : “We
have believed that this temple in Zion was to be the
one place where Yahweh would surely meet with us.
That is false !” Astounding utterance ! Jeremiah
proceeds to argue the question. He says, “ You be-
lieve you may chant : 'Here we are safe, free to do
after our own heart's pleasure.' Your pleasure is to
steal and murder and be impure. All this and much
more you do is utterly unlike Yahweh's way. He is
not here. He will avenge your insult.” He adds
another claim that is as startling. “We believed
that we were commanded to sacrifice, that is, to hold
joyful feasts of flesh in family circles gathered about
this sanctuary. We were not commanded to sacrifice,
but to listen to Yahweh's voice. And that voice in
all his prophets says, “ Be just and kind, like Yah-
weh.'"
Thus Jeremiah's third great advance was a crit-
icism of the Deuteronomic reformation. He declares
that the reformation has not made them good and
Yahweh-like: therefore, they are not safe from inva-
sion and oppression.
The next group opens in 605 B.C. with ch. xxv. and
immediately proves the prophet's readiness to turn
quite away from a former position when new occa-
sions arise. All along he had been condemning co-
quetting with Egypt. But now Egypt has fallen;
Babylon is mistress, as Jeremiah had expected, and
172 POLITICAL REORGANISATION IN JUDAH
she is to be feared. Therefore Jeremiah preaches
comfort against this new anxiety. This new Babylo-
nian empire is not God, nor will it stand forever.
Yahweh will by and by give Babylon the cup of ruin
to drink, although now she is to be supreme for a
season. This is followed in due order, by chaps. xlvi.-
xlix., picturing the lot of all the peoples that dwelt
around Judah.
Very little need be said now about all that remains
of the book. For all that is left occupied only about
seventeen years, i.e., a shorter space of time than
the former portion which occupied about twenty-two.
And the remaining thirty-three chapters are for our
purposes of less moment than the nineteen chapters
already considered. The utterances in the years of
unpopularity are naturally enough the best.
Of the second subdivision defined in the Appendix
we must mention these passages.
Chaps. xiv.-xvii., amid which, in the lament over
drought, there is a remarkable bit of theologising
concerning the meaning of the divine name Yahweh.
See especially xiv. 7, 9, 21 f., where Jeremiah pretty
clearly implies a belief that the name means “He
who causes the rain to fall.” Ch. xv. pictures Moses.
and Samuel as pre-eminently men of prayer. Ch.
xvi. is the first passage where we find a saying used
by Jeremiah and then copied a great number of
times by Ezekiel, namely: All events and experi-
ences in Hebrew story are to come to pass to the end
that men may know the character of the god of the He-
brews, or, “that they may know that he is Yahweh."
Ch. xvii. contains more studies of " the will”; also a
THEOLOGY AND ETHICS OF JEREMIAH
173
beautiful utterance of prayer. Another study of "the
will” is given in ch. xiii. dating probably under
Jeconiah, in the parable of the girdle that rotted. A
fatalistic persistence of character is asserted in the
well-known saying, “Can an Ethiopian change his
skin or a leopard his spots ?”
In the utterances under King Zedekiah, from 599–
588, there appears one more of the prophet's notable
advances. He declares his firm belief that Yahweh
has ordained Babylon to be for a time the supreme
governing state. He holds that, therefore, it is the
duty of Judah, in obedience to Yahweh, to accept this
providential plan, and to submit to be a province of
the Empire. Moreover, the Hebrews, or we may now
say Jews, or Judahites, are bound to be faithful to
their Babylonian masters even in slavery. The slaves
are to pray for blessing on their foreign lords. The
prophet is startlingly practical; he arranges and in-
vests his possessions and buys lands, certain that to
do so under this Babylonian overlordship is perfectly
safe. This is Jeremiah's fourth and final advance
in belief. In chaps. XX.-xxiv. and xxxii. f. we read
how sorely Jeremiah was persecuted for this new faith
of his.
When this city was taken, and so many were sent
away into slavery, the prophet was offered his choice,
either to go in the comfortable protection of the com-
mander-in-chief to a safe home in Babylon, or to stay
in Judah with the feeble few who were left," the poor
to cheer them and guide them. But even they turned
on him, reviled him, and carried him away to share
174 POLITICAL REORGANISATION IN JUDAH
in the delta of the Nile the worst evils he had pre-
dicted.
It is not necessary to collect Jeremiah's theological
and ethical opinions here under a separate rubric ;
they are sufficiently indicated for our purpose. We
will only set down together the four stages of ad-
vance which Jeremiah made: these form an excellent
summary of his faith.
He advanced from the faith that Yahweh was with
the nation, to the faith that Yahweh was with him
Jeremiah as an individual. Yahweh cares, said he,
for men individually.
His second advance is that he finds the study of
the mind, the will and the feelings of high import-
ance in his efforts to understand duty and to teach
his people.
He rises in his third advance above and beyond
the Deuteronomic or Josian faith in Zion, the one
sanctuary.
He advances again and gives up faith in the in-
dependence of Judah and preaches submission to
Babylon, urging King Zedekiah to go out to the gen-
erals of Nebuchadnezzar and yield himself to them.
We might say that Jeremiah's whole theology and
ethics were summed up in the phrase: constant ad-
vance for the individual, the state, and the world
under the personal inspiration and protection of
Yahweh.
1 According to the Hebrew ideas the heart is the seat of the mind,
the bowels the seat of the feelings, and the kidneys, or reins, the
seat of the will.
CHAPTER V
THE NEAR SEQUEL OF THE REFORMATION : ITS THEOL-
OGY AND ETHICS AS SEEN IN HABAKKUK, OBADIAH, AND
IN INCIPIENT INTEREST IN ZION, LAW, AND PSALMODY
HABAKKUK's short book illustrates well the condi-
tions and the movement of thought about the year
600 B.C., when Jeremiah had almost finished his
efforts to lift men above the level they had reached
when they accepted the covenant of the Deutero-
nomic reformation.
The chief features of Habakkuk's work are :
His readiness to advance with and beyond his fel-
lows; add to this his intensely moral attitude. In
every line he cries out for honesty. He does not
quote or even refer to the Decalogue, but he is of
the same mind with it in denouncing men and na-
tions who steal and rob, who are self-centred, greedy,
who are bloody, who worship gods that favour such
conduct. Yahweh is the only god, Habakkuk de-
clares, who exalts righteousness as first and best.
And yet this preacher upholds decidedly a doctrine
of material reward and punishment. The trust-
worthy man in blessing others is himself blessed
with life and joy. He it is who shall live, while the
cruel man is a fool and falls.
Manifestly now also the uses of the pen are becom-
ing apparent. Habakkuk declares this to be the
175
176
POLITICAL REORGANISATION IN JUDAH
wise and sure way to accomplish his prophetic task.
We may expect much literature henceforth, albeit
of the true Semitic sort. And so we find that a Dou-
teronomic school was busy in these years re-editing
in the usual patchwork style the scattered docu-
ments of earlier days. There was constructed about
this time, or not much later, the main substance of the
books of Genesis, etc., down to Judges, and Samuel
and of Kings, excepting that later editing and altera-
tion which was wrought by the Levitical or Priestly
school (P) in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.
Another characteristic is the acceptance of the
plan of one sanctuary. God came from Teman,
from Sinai away in the south, says Habakkuk; but
his abode now is in his holy temple, i.e., in Zion.
The exaltation of Zion begins now and the use of the
word as almost synonymous with the abode of Yah-
weh begins at this date to be characteristic.
And one more feature characteristic of our prophet
is his Psalm. Budde's judgment (Art. Habakkuk, in
the Encyc. Bibl.) is doubtless correct respecting the
opening verses, and perhaps also concerning the
close of the song. But his criticism fails to distin-
guish these portions from the core of the lyric, which
seems attributable to the time of Habakkuk. The
claim that the “ Anointed,” vs. 13, means the people,
and is therefore a mark of the late Jewish days, is
strained and hardly tenable. The occurrence of regu-
lar lyrics in a work by Habakkuk prepares us for the
nobler song in deutero-Isaiah, especially in chaps.
xlii., xlix., 1., liii. ; and here we reach the important
suggestion that the erection of the one central sanc-
THE NEAR SEQUEL OF THE REFORMATION
179
tuary with the establishment of its guild of ministers,
very naturally encouraged song in worship.
To this we must add that Habakkuk possesses a
profound faith in the devotion and love of Yahweh.
This pervades all he says, even if the fine utterance
be not his, which is paraphrased so well :
“ What though no flowers the fig-tree clothe,
Though vines their fruit deny.
The labour of the olive fail,
And fields no meat supply?
“ Yet in the Lord will I be glad,
And glory in His love;
In Him I'll joy, who will the God
Of my salvation prove."
We may expect such faith in the Unseen from the
companion of Jeremiah : and such men were sure
to inspire to activity such successors as we shall find
in the Exile a little later.
We may therefore reasonably regard these things
as the fruits of the reformation, viz. : the confirma-
tion of a higher moral tone; deeper grasp of the
unseen as real; the centralisation of religious thought
around Zion; the beginnings of psalmody; and much
use of the pen.
The book of Obadiah is possibly a product of these
times or not long after. It is a reflection on the cer-
tainty of a speedy nemesis upon a cruel people.
Edom has been suffering at the hands of Arab invad-
ers; but Edom had inflicted like suffering before upon
Judah. The most interesting feature for us is the
writer's pleasure in this study of such a doctrine of
178 POLITICAL REORGANISATION IN JUDAH
retribution. It hints at the coming of the “Job”
cyclus of writers.
These simple Hebrews were steadily advancing.
Their high morality and faith in God's nearness and
love compel us to set them high among the ideal
leaders of the race. With startling fearlessness these
men moved from faith to faith, from theology to the-
ology. They were not devotees of century-old sys-
tems and symbols. They give no support to the
common fancy that the theology of the Old Testa-
ment, from Genesis to Malachi, is one unvarying, har-
monious set of ideas concerning God, and man, and
duty. Their teaching proves exactly the opposite.
But now we must add that the years around 600
B.C. were a time of formulation of theories concern-
ing duty. It is impossible here to detail the evi-
dence that code after code of rules, prescriptions,
statutes, was written and published. We have seen
some of this movement in our study of Deuteron-
omy: more will come before us presently. The lan-
guage becomes enriched, shall we say, at this date
by such words as pit (choq) “statute."? We are quite
safe in attributing to the periods following the refor-
mation any literature in which this word “statute”
and the like are characteristic. The year 622 B.C.,
is clearly the terminus a quo for such words. We
are entering the “law” times of Hebrew history.
It is quite correct to attribute to this period the
1 It should be observed that this word choq is the proper Hebrew
term for 6 law," whereas the word " Torah,” commonly rendered
slaw," does not mean law at all, but is exactly equivalent to
6 teaching,” or “ doctrine," or " theory.”
THE NEAR SEQUEL OF THE REFORMATION 179
definite crystallisation of methods for economic and
social betterment. One of the worst evils that the
great prophets of 800 to 700 B.C. denounced was
robbery of landed rights from the poorer class by the
more powerful. Deuteronomy aims plainly at set-
ting this right, and Jeremiah comments strongly on
this aim and its justice. This economic movement
remained strong for many a day; the problem was a
hard one, but thoughtful men kept brooding over it,
and publishing ever new proposals for its solution.
But all these lines of light lead to one focus, which
has been ably explained by the late W. Robertson
Smith, in his work on the “Religion of the Semites.”
He describes the earlier Semitic religions as possible
only among fairly prosperous peoples. As we have
seen their cult consisted almost entirely of the joyful
feast of flesh where the whole clan met, and the
god of the clan had his share. The god would be
at peace with such a clan. Was it not he who caused
all their joy because of his satisfaction with them?
The sorrow befalling any individual was passed by
lightly in the faith that this would soon be exchanged
for a brighter share in the common gladness. The
moral sense had not become awake and quick : there
was little of the feeling that goodness was itself
happiness. There was no brooding consciousness
of sin.
But when the era of prosperity began to wane, and
great world-empires crushed the lesser states by
wars, slaughters, fire, and heavy tribute, then there
began the selfish clutching by the more powerful at
* See Jer. xxxiv. 9 ff. A record of Baruch concerning Jeremiah.
180 POLITICAL REORGANISATION IN JUDAH
the little stores of the poor. Some lost all confi-
dence in the protection of the deity; they played
with the gods of other peoples for a while, but in the
end grew reckless. Some tried by secret magic arts
to awaken mysterious powers, or some deities long
forgotten and as it were asleep, grew gloomy, afraid
that their deity was altogether hard and stern at
heart; and they tried all manner of severe self-deny-
ing ordinances in the hope of appeasing him.
Both these attitudes aroused the prophets. The
former godless, selfish conduct was what the great
moral preachers of the eighth century attacked. The
other gloomy attitude took definite form in the efforts
of the Deuteronomists, and against the exaggerations
of these Jeremiah strove. He shared indeed largely
the spirit of the Deuteronomists, and so did all the
nobler of the people. The chief faith that there must
be some Statutes to which Yahweh demanded obedi-
ence, some conduct pleasing to him, was very naturally
accepted. Hebrew religion of the early, naïve sort had
passed away and the strong, moral demand of the
prophets was also becoming a thing of the past. A
new religion of “performances” was born; but this
may not correctly be called Hebraism; the name
Judaism is better, because it was the religion of
Judah, the only survivor of the old Hebrew peoples.
Our study of Hebrew theology and ethics might
end here, but for two reasons : (1) There burst
from the passing Hebraism its very finest blossom
and fruit, as we shall now see in the story of the
earlier years of Exile: (2) Even the later Judaism
was the child and heir of Hebraism.
PART VI
RELIGION AND ETHICS IN THE EXILE
500 B.C., ONWARD
CHAPTER I
THE EXILES AND THEIR PROBLEM
WHEN Nebuchadnezzar, the new world's Emperor,
destroyed Zion and enslaved its worshippers, thought-
ful men seem to have turned to face the question,
How can such things be? Why does Yahweh deal
thus? The question requires that we remember
who were these people who went into Exile. In the
first deportation went ten thousand men of rank,
sheiks and religious officers and skilled workmen.
In the second went thousands more, all save the very
poor. Behind was left Zion, the only door, as they
thought, to Yahweh's presence, and all else that might
make life even possible. Before them was enslave-
ment and prison. Despair and rebellion ruled within
as they trod the weary thousand miles from Jerusalem
to Babylon. But some there were who knew a song
a prophet had written a century before, and that
Micah-song they would sing now:
• When I fall, I shall arise :
Now, even now!
When I sit in darkness,
Yahweh is a light about me!"
181
182
RELIGION AND ETHICS IN THE EXILE
There were other words that some knew, for just as
exilo days drew near, Habakkuk had chanted,
“ Yet will I rejoice in Yahweh.
I will joy in my God,
Who is a saviour."
If we would understand the exiles, we must re-
member these songs of their fathers, also the hopes
and the warnings of the old prophets who had been
the conscience and heart of the people for generations
past. Many a child born in that exile grew to be an
old man or aged mother and never saw the sacred
soil. But they were all children of a far-away land
and a far past time; hidden tendrils within their
souls reached out to an absent fatherland, to absent
fathers' graves, to lost sanctuaries and lost joys.
All these were a very part of themselves.
What had those joys been ? What had called
them forth? The picture of all this is in our hands
in the words of the older Hebrew writers. The
people had been enslaved in another foreign land,
Egypt, long before ; but once delivered from that,
they rose to be a fairly well-knit nation. High
hopes grew, rich possessions accumulated; with these
wrongs multiplied, also, as to-day. With social good
sprang social ills, as always. Then, as now, the voice
of God, in the conscience of great preachers, con-
demned the wrongs, and the voice of the preacher
was always an uttered thought of the nation. “Where
shall we find God that we may live ? "
Was it any wonder that men looked toward the
sanctuaries? It was there they had been glad in
THE EXILES AND THEIR PROBLEM
183
soul around their festive meal, with the natural sense
of satisfied needs, and of the goodness of the Unseen
who gave food and life. So, in the sanctuaries men
bowed, listening for words of help. Then, when in
course of time, the nation was led to centralise all
the order of society and government, we are not sur-
prised that this was done around one central sanc-
tuary.
All men were to submit to definite duties and to
statutory tasks; and so definite law began to be
valued and recorded. It was believed that subordi-
nation of all things under the control of one sanctu-
ary, with careful definition of duties, would bring
temporal good and spiritual benefits to all. So people
and priests, preachers and prince covenanted to make
Zion sole and supreme in worship and law. They
believed that this was a solemn covenant made by
Yahweh with Judah, and that now all was well. Such
was the faith expressed by Josiah's reformation about
622 B.C., a score of years before the Exile.
That reformation did not prove to be a success.
The poor still suffered and the powerful acquired
more power. Men were learning to curse God in
their hearts, while even king's sons and sheiks, priests
and prophets, were waxing more careless in selfish-
ness and formalism. To Jeremiah the conditions
seemed even worse than before the reformation, be-
cause less truthful.
We are apt to conclude that the Exile was a judg-
ment on these wrongdoings. The lashing scourge
of Jeremiah's preaching seems to lend confirmation
to this opinion. But Jeremiah suffered worse than
184
RELIGION AND ETHICS IN THE EXILE
many another. Was he a worse man than those ?
The exile came on the righteous, as well as on the
unrighteous. Nay more, there was growing up a be-
lief that just those who were bowed down with suf-
fering were the righteous people. Zephaniah had
taught, as we saw, that it was best to seek to be
bowed down, for the sufferers were the real people of
Yahweh. But even those who leaned toward this view
must have hesitated to say that slavery was a sign of
righteousness. And yet the other horn of the dilem-
ma was as distinct and inevitable: the suffering was
settling down upon all, and the best men were suf-
fering most. Was suffering the mark of good men,
and should they accept it as a pleasure ? Or, was
suffering the mark of bad men, and a sign that the
sufferer had sinned? Either way was hard to choose.
So men were driven more than ever to seek a solution
of this problem, the problem of the exile, the prob-
lem of suffering, and chiefly the suffering of good
men. What revelation was coming to answer this
hard problem? What revelation did come in that
exile ?
Let us not pass this eve of the exile without noting
again one practical truth then discovered, and pro-
claimed by Jeremiah when he counselled submission
to Nebuchadnezzar as the will of Yahweh. What an
outrage on the old pious belief, and respectable, or-
ganised self-esteem ! Jeremiah spoke his own doom;
but will anyone now question his statesmanship?
He and men of like mind were not the only prophets
of those days: they tell us themselves how one Hana-
niah and others prophesied against them and were
THE EXILES AND THEIR PROBLEM
185
quite popular because they did so. Yet the genera-
tions following have preserved for us the writings of
Jeremiah and not those of Hananiah. The world
soon saw that Jeremiah was the wiser man. And this
is all the more notable because there was evidently a
strong reaction against all such prophets as Jeremiah,
indeed, against all whom we may call the more
spiritual.
ILUL
CHAPTER II
THE EXILIC LITERATURE
We are singularly well supplied with literature pro-
duced by the exiles or by men of that time. The
residence in Babylon seems to have favoured the stu-
dious, reflecting and literary spirit. This was perfectly
natural. Babylon had been a home of literary men
for thousands of years. And there might be plenty
of opportunity for thoughtful Jews to read, to think,
and to write, although they were slaves. A proper
understanding of Oriental slavery will show this at
once.
We have a large store of such literary work. We
have it in Ezekiel, also in some chapters of the book
of Leviticus, xvii.-xxvi., which were written by a
friend of Ezekiel, and which seem to have been
specially dear to the exiles. The Jews of Alexander's
time, 300 B.C., attributed this part of Leviticus to
Jeremiah. Probably the book of Job also tells us
See 2 Chron. XXXVI. 21, and compare with this Leviticus XXV.
4 ff. and xxvi. 34 f., 43. The books of Chronicles date, at earliest,
from Alexander's time, * as is seen in many references in the books
to matters of that date, e.g., names of priests, princes, and coins.
The words of 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21 are, “Jeremiah prophesied "The
land shall rest,'" etc., and these latter words are to be found only
in Lev. xvii.-xxvi. He who quoted them thus regarded these
words of Leviticus as uttered in the time of the Exile. Of course
he may have been mistaken, but the evidence is nearest in date to
the time of the documents quoted.
* Nöldeke, ZAT W, 1900, S. 88 ff., maintains that Chronicles were
not written before the middle of the second century.-[Craig.]
186
THE EXILIC LITERATURE
187
of the times of the Exile, and the way of thinking
then; although it is not exactly the mind of a slave
in Babylon, but rather that of some one who had gone
for safety, it may be, into the desert home of the wan-
dering Arabs.
Then that wonderful part of the book of Isaiah
beginning at chap. xl. was written, as all agree, for
the Exiles. Indeed, the people of Alexander's time
took it for a work of Jeremiah, as we may read in
2 Chronicles.
There are other books that shed light on these
times, but those we have named are the chief. And,
unlike the pre-exilic books, they were evidently writ-
ten before they were spoken. Ezekiel was even de-
termined not to speak at all, for a while; he after-
ward drew up plans for discourse, for government,
and for buildings, and began to write. The times
favoured quiet reflection. Perhaps, indeed, men dared
not speak much aloud, for their slave masters were
at hand : and besides, they were sad, for they were
wont to hang up their harps, as one writes of them
afterward. They thought on Zion; they were con-
tent to think.
When we turn to the writings, we find that the one
question that engages them all is, Why do good men
suffer? The different answers must occupy us in the
following chapter.
See 2 Chron. xxxvi. 22 f., and compare Isa. xli. 2; xliv. 28;
xlv. 1 ff.
CHAPTER III
THE ANSWERS TO THE EXILIC PROBLEM
1. The Answer of the Writers of the Book of Job.1
The chief writer seems satisfied simply to ponder
on the hard matter. His pleasure is to picture puzzled
men and would-be wise ones, who cause only more pain
by their conceit, and also the restless sufferer himself,
who gives up the stern riddle almost in despair.
The sufferer closes with a noble confession that he
has not reached a complete solution, but gladly leaves
the mystery with Yahweh, satisfied simply to possess
the faculty of reflecting on his ways, mysterious as
they are.
It is another writer who gives the opening story,
which is much older than the rest. It suggests its
answer by its picture of the court and councils of
heaven. The theory is that it is necessary to the
very thoughtfulness of heaven that a righteous man's
righteousness be tested. The story then goes on, with
finest dramatic art, to illustrate the difficulty of per-
suading men-both good and wise—that this theory of
testing is the right one. The later student of the
1 There were doubtless more writers than one. The book, as it
lies before us, is the answers of several men woven together. The
best possible view, so far, of these elements and their interweaving
seems that given in Duhm's recent Commentary: pub’d by Mohr,
Freiburg, 1897.
188
ANSWERS TO THE EXILIC PROBLEM
189
problem uses this older story as his basis in the long
arguments that follow, setting forth this solution of
the problem, to wit: good men suffer to the end that
current wrong theories of suffering may be over-
thrown. Several of such mistaken theories are de-
molished; especially the common arguments of Eli-
phaz, Bildad, and Zophar, that Job must have sinned.
In the end of the book the first writer and his pict-
ure reappear, and we have another solution. There
will come, says this theory, a time when the present
troubles shall all have passed away and the sufferers,
Job and all like him, shall have more joys than they
ever had before. None the less do all the discussions
leave the problem in the last analysis of it unsolved.
2. The Answer of the “ Holiness Law.”
The little book incorporated in the Torah, at Leviti-
cus xvii.-xxvi., has long been left almost unread. But
it is a document of great worth. In its present form
it is a composite work, much of it being Aaronitio
and of the time between the Exile and Alexander.
But there was a work used in the composition of it
which is very certainly much earlier, post-Josian and
post-Deuteronomic indeed, yet singularly analogous
to the work of Ezekiel and doubtless related to his
age. Its spirit and its language show this. We
have pointed out above one of the very oldest theories
1 It is indeed not homogeneous, for it incorporates, e.g., in xviii.
and IX., documents which were never written as parts of one and
the same continuous treatise. They disregard each other too much
for that.
190
RELIGION AND ETHICS IN THE EXILE
1
of its origin, as given in 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21. Its writer
is a man of noblest spirit. The touch of his heart on
a listener to-day, although it comes across long ages,
is like that of the solemn words, “Go, and sin no
more.”
He shared the mind of men like Josiah and be-
lieved firmly that sanctuaries were the way to Yah-
weh. He had grasped also the Reformation doctrine
and taught that there was only one sanctuary chosen
of Yahweh, and so only that one way to come to him.
But this was not enough; the ways of Yahweh's peo-
ple must be strictly and devotedly in accordance with
the mind of the devoted Yahweh. They must be de-
voted and holy to him as he is holy and devoted to
them. More still, all details of duty at this sanctu-
ary must be most scrupulously thought out and pre-
scribed. The introductory pleadings in ch. xvii. and
the prolonged beseechings of the conclusion in ch. xxvi.
show the man to be one of the most eager of preachers;
his pamphlet is a sermon, an exhortation born of an
intense desire that is a very agony, to have his hearers
do as he advises them. And one point of his plea is as
plain as it can be: “Do these things, for otherwise
woe will come. Suffering comes on men because they
do not fulfil all the details of God's will.” This is his
solution of the problem of pain. His ceremonialism is
indeed insufficient and narrow; we may say he is a
sacerdotalist : but his moral ideal is as great as his
ceremonialism. The two are wonderfully interwoven:
witness his constant refrain, “Be holy, for I your
god am holy." His demand for honesty, kindness,
reverence, love, and purity is strikingly noble. Jesus
ANSWERS TO THE EXILIC PROBLEM
191
quoted this man's words as the second great law for
all life. “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself”
are words taken from this part of Leviticus. A few
sentences after he has laid down that great duty
quoted by Jesus, he goes back to it, repeats it and
extends it to mean not only one's countrymen but
foreigners also. How quickly this Holiness-Writer
in Leviticus steps away past all forms that we are
apt to suppose were canonical in his day! How he
expands, revises, reiterates, and combines, if by any
means he may set up a thorough standard. This
swaying restlessness, and anxiety of conscience
mark a lofty spirit and an exalted age of thought.
Such an ethical spirit was born among the men who
wrought the Deuteronomic reformation, who pro-
duced Jeremiah and who then went into slavery!
But the most startling mark of the man's charac-
ter is the greatest of all; he is overwhelmed with
the sense that there must be improvement in social
purity. The man who wrote down the demands for
purity of blood in Lev. xvii.-xxvi. must have had dis-
gusting scenes around him, but he was also terribly in
earnest to have the home-life of this world cleansed.
3. The Answer of Ezekiel.
Ezekiel echoes the very words of the Holiness-
Book." His treatise on the problem of “The Suffer-
ing in Exile” shows marks of the influence of many
a teacher. He is one of those strange paradoxes that
1 This inter-relation of the Holiness-Writer and Ezekiel is re-
markably exhibited in the Polychrome Leviticus by Driver and
White. See pp. 101 f.
192
RELIGION AND ETHICS IN THE EXILE
are so human. He seems on the surface and by his
garb to be only the official, stately, stiff; but he is
one of the most human of men, as you see by his
clinging to the great teachers of his people in the
past and constantly quoting their words.
At first, the degradation of this great officer and his
company of chiefs in slavery embittered his spirit.1
But, by and by, as a child who ceases to weep for-
gets his trouble and begins to sing, so this child-man
forgets his woes in splendid hopes for the days to
come. While he sings, one would suppose at first
hearing, that he could not or would not chant any
theme save what he had learned from the fathers;
for even his flight of soul to grasp a hope for radical
conversion of men (chapter xi.) is plainly a repetition
of Jeremiah's words. One is tempted, on reading
the earlier chapters, to exclaim, How does formalism
crush out originality, and force its uniformities! But
reading on we find that this priestly man can
burst out in utterances of his own, which are precious
on that account alone, although they are not so sub-
lime as the other sayings which he copies from the
fathers. His own lower-toned conception of conver-
sion that appears in ch. xviii. is a valuable conception
just because it is a personal utterance under the in-
fluence of great excitement. The priest proves to be
after all a prophet, who communes with God..
1 His earlier complaints and charges of sin are aimed mostly at
the people who are still dwelling in Jerusalem. The exiles in Baby-
lon, the 5 Golah” are good ; the people in Zion are bad! a special
sin of these is their secret magic. Cf. W. R. Smith, Rel. Sem.,
pp. 338 f.
ANSWERS TO TÃE EXILIO PROBLEM
193
As we approach his solution of the problem, we
learn his mind concerning Josiah's reformation.
That, says he, was never truly carried out: and there
lies the explanation of our slavery and pain. Our
god demanded certain religious forms; we have de-
ceitfully ignored them. He is angry at us as default-
child rises even to poetry of conception as he writes
his systematic book to describe what great increase
of ceremonial arrangements should be made, and
what abundant forms should be added to all that
Josiah and his people had undertaken. It is by a
new, and far larger system of ceremonies, thinks
Ezekiel, that Yahweh of Israel will be certainly ap-
peased and glad to return and abide forever in the
new city. The man becomes a sort of prophet in
his wealth of new priestly plans. And it is to be
noted that the prophet-like and very un-priestly
nature of his communication with Yahweh is sharply
manifest in one feature. He does not quote any
human mediator as authority for his new system.
There had been such theory of a mediator very dis-
tinctly preached and nationally accepted at Josiah's
reformation (cf. Deut. v.); there is but little of it in
Ezekiel. This priest rises above priesthood. It is
none the less pathetic to come again and again upon
the marks of the man's humanity in its weakness;
but then we always smile with delight the next mo-
ment, as we read of his discoveries of help. For ex-
ample, he says that the sacred land is to be again
the abode of Yahweh and his people. But here he
stumbles and cries, as it were, “We, alas! we cannot
194
RELIGION AND ETHICS IN THE EXILE
get there.” To speak of an escape of any sort from
the slaveholders would have been, no doubt, a serious,
dangerous deed. Ezekiel does not propose any fugi-
tive slave plan, by which to escape from Babylon.
Such high mission and inspiration were to await
another mind and pen. Ezekiel falls short here;
this is his human feebleness. But is it not also
greatness to grasp at a help that must come out of
the unseen? So he cries 1 « to people the Holy Land
there must be a resurrection of the dead who lie
there!” This is a lesser faith than that which rises
to say, “Our God can overcome men and govern-
ments, and deserts, and lead us back the thousand
miles”; yet it is a faith in an unseen being, who
works in ways unknown, and who certainly can con-
struct and create the body, for he does so every day.
Ezekiel here rises to a true prophet's rank and com-
pels reverence for his theology. His ethics are
chiefly ceremonial, as we have said. There were
efforts made to get Ezekiel's book excluded from the
collections of sacred writings which the later Jews
revered; the book and the man were much too inde-
pendent, thought some. Yet it is there in the collec-
tion, and its answer to the problem has been saved
for us. It required independence to rise to such a
task. A priest might face it, but only when he be-
came a prophet, and claimed the right and the indis-
pensable liberty to receive the divine intimations
1 See his great theory, ch. xxxvii., “The Vision of the Valley
of Dry Bones,” which has been constantly transferred away from
Ezekiel's use of it to something very different. It is his plan for
repeopling Canaan without a return from the Exile.
ANSWERS TO THE EXILIC PROBLEM
195
without mediating lawgiver or compulsory adherence
to customs of the past.
4. The Answers in the “ Comfort-Poem” in Isaiah.
The highest lessons taught to the slaves in Baby-
lon are recorded in Isaiah xl. and following chap-
ters. If we consider first what the most careful ex-
amination of the text warrants us in using as strictly
belonging to the Sixth century, B.C. we also note that
all the supplementers must be studied in their due
order. There is not a phrase added by the simplest
gloss-writer that ought not to be weighed and prized
at its exact historical value. But it is to be remem-
bered that our present text is not as the first writer
produced it, but is, as it were, an annotated copy.1
In trying to estimate with certainty what were the
theology and ethics of the men who wrote during the
slavery in Babylon, it seems best to be content with
what the most radical judgment allows to be unques-
tionably the original product of the first and the sec-
ond writers. By confining our views to these, we
shall at least gain a good view of much that was
actually grasped by the men of the Exile. We are
here coming to the highest flight of Hebrew thought,
and we may well be content if we find every student
agreeing that this idea, opinion, faith, and theologi-
cal or ethical height were attained by some of the
slaves in Babylon between 575 and 525 B.C.
* As helps to the study of this Deutero-Isaiah, see: Polychrome
Bible, Part 10, Isaiah ; T. K. Cheyne ; Clark & Co., London, 1898.
Das Buch Jesaia; B. Duhm; Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göt-
tingen, 1892.
196
RELIGION AND ETHICS IN THE EXILE
The passages which Cheyne attributes with very
few exceptions to the first writer are :
Isaiah xl., xli., xlii. 8–25, xliii., xliv. 1-8, and 21–28, xlv.,
xlvi. 1-5, and 9–13, xlvii., xlviii. 3, 5–8, 11-16, 20-21.
Duhm's analysis is almost exactly the same so far,
but he considers that it is the same writer who con-
tinues the most of the work on to the end of ch. lv.
Then both Cheyne and Duhm attribute to a second
writer four hymns, viz. :
xlii. 1-4; xlix. 1-6; 1. 4–9; lii. 13-liii. 12.
The first writer is he who sings the well-known
touching words, ch. xl. 1,
“Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God."
Again, also, that wonder among utterances of faith,
ch. xli. 17 f.
“When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none,
and their tongue is parched with thirst,
I, Yahweh, will answer, I, the god of Israel, will not forsake.
On bare hills I will open rivers and fountains in the midst
of valleys.
I will make the wilderness a brimming lake, and dry land
channels of water.
I will set in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle,
and the olive tree.
I will place in the desert the pine, the plane tree, and the
cypress together,
That men may see, and acknowledge, and consider, and
understand at once,
That Yahweh's hand has done this and Israel's devoted one
has created it." I
1 Such in the main is Cheyne's translation.
ANSWERS TO THE EXILIC PROBLEM
197
The second writer, author of the four slave hymns
mentioned, is a man of high poetical ability and lof-
tiest religious and moral character. If we now form
for ourselves a careful estimate of the mind of each
of these, the first and second writers, and even con-
fine ourselves only to the limits which Cheyne would
allow, we shall see two personages of great impor-
tance to the story of Hebrew theology and ethics.
THE FAITES 0 F THE COMFORT POEM.
CHAPTER IV
THE FAITHS OF THE COMFORT POEM
The Ideas Concerning God.
NOTHING seems more pronounced than the first
writer's belief that Yahweh, the god of the Hebrews,
is controller of all things. He holds all the stars,
he calls out to them their individual names, sum-
moning them thus from their hidden abodes. And
as it is in the heavens, so it is on earth ; Yahweh
controls the empires, kingdoms, princes, and peoples.
He arranges their times of rise and continuance, and
prosperity and fall. We must observe at this point
how naturally the faith of our writer has grown up,
or to put it in other words, how the divine method
of inspiration of great souls is the most natural
method thinkable. God inspires one generation by
causing them to read and study the thoughts of the
previous generation. Jeremiah had grasped the idea
that Yahweh wished his people to be ruled a while
by Babylon; and here we have his pupil, a genera-
tion later, standing on Jeremiah's faith as basis but
extending the idea much farther. For this Exilic
writer has practically thrown away the idea that
there are, or can be, any other gods at all besides
Yahweh. Hosea and Isaiah in Jerusalem could sol-
emnly argue against the worth and power of other
gods. Jeremiah did not deny their existence, but he
198
THE FAITHS OF THE COMFORT POEM
199
had little to say of them. This writer in the Exile
laughs at them. Doubtless his abode in Babylon
had shown how impotent the images of the Babylonian
deities were. While the Hebrew remained in his own
land, he might easily fancy the gods of Babylon were
very powerful; not so when he had once seen them
in their own temples. Exile has made our writer a
monotheist, and indeed the first monotheist among the
Hebrew writers. Yahweh is to him, therefore, the
Creator of the whole earth and of all things therein.
He is the God who can give all strength to the tender
or fainting Hebrew, or to the mighty conqueror Cyrus.
Yahweh will give water to the wanderers across the
waterless desert; he will carry the children in his
bosom, and he will tenderly lead along the weary
mothers on their expected pilgrimage back to Canaan.
Better still, he will forgive all iniquity, not that he
will do this without having exacted full penalty for
all wrong done, nay, he has required a suffering that
is double the due for all her sin; but it is he who has
the right to exact the penalty and to declare it paid.
This view of forgiveness and of sin is not the highest.
The highest stage is yet to be attained.
Little is said about the worship due to Yahweh. Yet
there are a few words (xliii. 23 f.) which show that
the sheep was slaughtered for a festival meal as of
old, and that some sort of incense was burned, per-
haps the sweet cane that is mentioned close by. In-
deed it would scarcely be possible to hold in the Exile
anything save a household festival, and a private
slaughter for this meal, as was the later custom for
the passover.
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RELIGION AND ETHICS IN THE EXILE
But a new worship began to burst from the hearts
in song. The whole book is a poem; but here and
there the writer breaks out in a rich lyric of praise
and joy, as in xlii. 10–13; xlv. 8, according to
Cheyne, and according to Duhm, xlix. 13. This
kind of worship would be the perfectly natural spon-
taneous offering of glad and thankful hearts, by men
gathered in their slave homes as families or in simple
assemblies.
Let us reserve description of the definite plans of
Yahweh for the future of the Hebrews, as this writer
conceived them, until a little later. Meanwhile we
examine his views Concerning the People of Yahweh.
The Hebrew people are set high in honour by some
of the expressions applied to them. They are said
to have in their very veins the nature of the lover of
Yahweh. Abraham had been pictured as supreme
patriarch of the Hebrews, Edomites, Ishmaelites, and
other Arabs, by both of the great schools of narrative
writers, the Yahwists and Elohists. These had all
described him as no ordinary ancestor, but a friend
of Yahweh and of the Elohim. But no one of the
great prophets before the Exile had used these stories
about him, or referred to his character. The three
passages in which they seem to do so are late inser-
tions. But in Babylon men began to talk of this great
ancestor. So Ezekiel names him once ;2 and the
writings collected in Isa. xl.-Ixvi., mention him three
times. Our writer does so once, in order that he may
? Isa. xxix. 22; Mic. vii. 20 ; Jer. xxxiii. 26. See Cheyne,
Cornill & Duhm, in loc.
? Ez. xxxii. 24.
THE FAITHS OF THE COMFORT POEM
201
extol the Hebrews as the children of that old friend
of God. Ch. xli. 8.
Again it is meant to be a similar honour when the
writer claims that they are Yahweh's slaves. “Ye
are my servants.” The slave was a part of the master
he belonged to; he shared his lord's life in sharing
his lord's home and food and honour, and in a sense
his very blood, for the common food they ate made
common blood flow in their veins. Carried off as
slaves by Babylonian soldiers, they still were owned
by Yahweh, for they had learned to believe that his
power did not cease at the desert's edge near
Another very natural dignity is claimed for them.
They are “witnesses for Yahweh.” In that foreign
land Yahweh must be made known, his might ex-
plained and extolled, his character set forth and his
full foreknowledge of all events. Our writer believes
that Yahweh alone can foretell. The Hebrews are
privileged witnesses, as well as the only persons
qualified for this task. We should note this point
especially, for its natural consequence is not seen by
this writer; he never becomes a preacher to those
heathen Babylonians of the universally saving love of
Yahweh. But the next writer does.
We now reach a remarkable feature of the writer's
ideas; to fit these people for all their tasks, Yahweh
is believed to say:
“Fear not, my slave—my chosen,
I will pour water upon the thirsty.
I will pour my spirit upon thy posterity, and my blessing
upon thy offspring.” Ch. xliv. 2 f.
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RELIGION AND ETHICS IN THE EXILE
If Isaiah xi. is genuine and from the prophet
Isaiah of Jerusalem, then this idea of an endowment
with divine spirit had its birth one hundred and fifty
years before the exilic utterance of it. But then the
poured-out spirit was to endow the prince; whereas,
now it is to come down over and brood upon all the
people. Micah had described the inspirations of
goodness and guidance for men, which come to the
preacher. And Ezekiel, of all men the hardest
priestly formalist, exalted his pages with records of
the works of “the spirit.” So he said:
V
ii. 2. “The spirit entered into me, as he spoke to
me."
iii. 24. “The spirit entered into me, and set me on my
feet.”
xi. 5. “The spirit of Yahweh fell upon me, and he said
to me.”
19. “I will give them a new mind and put a new
spirit within them.”
xviii. 31. “Make you a new mind and a new spirit.”
xxxvi. 26. “I will sprinkle pure water upon you and ye
shall be pure.
I will give you a new mind and put within you
a new spirit;
I will take the stony mind out of your bosom
and give you a mind of flesh.
My own spirit I will put in you."
xxxvii. 14. “I will put my spirit in you and ye shall live.”
xxxix. 29. “I will no longer leave any of them there,
Nor any longer hide my face from them.
When I shall have poured out my spirit on the
house of Israel,
Saith the lordly Yahweh."
THE FAITHS OF THE COMFORT POEM
203
Our writer in Isaiah xliv. expects Yahweh to pour his
spirit upon all Hebrew posterity. In all these utter-
ances we can see a great change in the thinking of
the people. In early days the Semitic faith was that a
common blood made a common life in the members of
the tribe, both in the men and the god of the tribe.
But that faith was rudely shattered. There came a
day when they felt that their god went no more out
with them into the battles of life. Then Hosea
preached the new doctrine that Yahweh is not man's
clansman. He does not join with men in the old
way; but he has a new character, of loving-kindness,
Chesedh, which they did not know before. Now he
will be their husband, no longer a ba'al, a mere food-
giver, but the husband in spirit and life and love.
So the prophets of the exile reached the high level
and declared :
“Our God will fill us all with his own spirit, and love."
The Views of Yahweh's Purposes Among Men.
Now we reach the climax of this writer's faith in
Yahweh and expectation for the future of the Hebrews.
He is going to restore them to Canaan. To such a He-
brew this view is absolutely necessary; for our writer
still stands upon the old Semitic theory that a god
and a people and their land are inseparable. Only
on their own land can there be clean life, i.e., harm-
less existence; only there can they be buried safely,
because their god is the god of that land. No-
where else but in Canaan could Yahweh properly and
fully work, therefore the Hebrews must be restored
204 RELIGION AND ETHICS IN THE EXILE
thither. The sin that was being expiated by exile is
now doubly punished. Therefore the cry, “ Up, ye
captives, make straight across the desert a highway
for your god, and away." Here, then, is a relic of
the old faith. It was inconsistent certainly, and yet
there were circumstances that very easily occasioned
its recrudescence. The events in imperial history
did this. Babylon was failing. The new world con-
queror, Cyrus of Medo-Persia, was marching west-
ward, and many Babylonians as well as Jews expected
that he would come down on the Queen city, and
would reduce her to her old enslavement, under the
new master. The Hebrews knew that Cyrus was
favourable to all religions and believed that he
would favour them and send them home to their
land and their ancestral religion. The faith that
Cyrus was actually called out of the east by Yah-
weh for this task easily arose.
“ Thus says Yahweh, thy redeemer,
I am Yahweh who wrought everything,
Who says of Cyrus : My friend is he,
And all my purposes will he accomplish.”
ch. xliv. 24–28.
Our writer goes much further: at least he does so
to the common fancy of to-day, although he says
only what is perfectly natural for a Hebrew. He
sings on (xlv. 1 ff.):
“ Thus says Yahweh to his anointed,' to Cyrus,
Whose right hand I have grasped.
. . . . . . . . . . .
i The Hebrew word is Mashich. It is very often used of kings.
priests, and others who are regarded as divinely appointed to their
THE FAITHS OF THE COMFORT POEM
205
“ To open doors before him, and that gates may not be
closed :
I myself will go before thee, —
Doors of bronze will I break in pieces,
It was for the sake of Jacob, my slave, and Israel my chosen,
that I called thee by name;
I took delight in thee, though thou knewest me not.
So it was I who aroused him in righteousness.
He will build my city, and my exiled ones will he set free.
I have brought near my gift, it is not far off,
And it is my deliverance that is not to tarry,
I appoint in Zion deliverance and for Israel my adornment."
xlvi. 13.
It is quite evident then what this writer was think-
ing of, what events in history he was looking upon,
and indeed in what year was his work. For history
tells us that Cyrus, who reigned 555–530 B.C., marched
westward in the early years of his reign, conquer-
ing everything before him. Therefore, doubtless,
our writer was expecting the deliverance, and wrote
these chapters, Isaiah, xl.-xlviii., about the year 550
or soon after that. Babylonian annals of King
Nabuna'id say that Cyrus crossed the Tigris not far
tasks. So it is used by our writer to characterise Cyrus. But the
frequentative form Messiah, meaning "i One who is constantly
apointed,” is never used in the Old Testament indeed, it is not a
Hebrew word. It appears first in the New Testament, in late
Aramaic; and it is applied to Jesus. He alone is described, in
Semitic style, as one who is continuously appointed of God to his
task.
206
RELIGION AND ETHICS IN THE EXILE
from Babylon about 547 B.C. But the Hebrews' hope
was disappointed. Crcesus, king of Lydia, marched
in 546 to Babylon's help, and the Medo-Persian had
to turn all his strength to the destruction of the
Lydian. Babylon was free for another eight or nine
years. The poor Hebrews were plunged into darker
trouble than before, for evidently the Babylonian
masters wreaked their vengeance on the slaves who
had plotted to be free. Such, then, is the faith, re-
ligion, and moral height of the singer of “ Comfort ye
my people.” The expectation and prediction were
disappointed: but the faith was far up toward the
true height. That height was soon reached.
CHAPTER V
THE FOUR SONGS OF THE SUFFERING SLAVE
Isa. xlii. 1-4 ; xlix. 1-6; 1. 4-9; lii. 13-liii. 12.
The author of the four Slave-Lyrics had a higher
ideal for the Hebrews than his contemporary whom
we have been studying. And while the second of his
lyrics, xlix. 1-6, must date indeed after the discovery
that the people were not to be restored to Canaan,
yet the previous one, xlii. 1-4, gives no suggestion of
such discovery. It shows, doubtless, what was this
noble slave's mind in the earlier days when the chant
of deliverance was being published. The former
writer, in that chant, called the Hebrews Yahweh's
slaves ; but he was very angry with their slow, slavish
attitude under his eager exhortations. He cries :
“Who is blind, but the servants of Yahweh,
And deaf as their rulers !
Much hast thou seen without observing it;
Thou whose ears were open, yet thou didst not hear!”
Just before this passage the first lyric by the second
writer has been inserted. He sings :
xlii. 1-6. “Behold my slave, whom I uphold;
My chosen in whom my soul delights ;
I have put my spirit upon him;
He will set forth teaching to the nations.
207
208
RELIGION AND ETHICS IN THE EXILE
“He will not cry aloud, nor roar as a lion,
Nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.
A cracked reed he will not break,
And a dimly burning wick he will not quench.
“Faithfully will be set forth teaching;
He will not burn dimly nor be crushed in spirit.
Till he have set teaching in the earth,
And for his instruction the far countries wait.”
Here is a wonderfully high ideal, set up by a cap-
tive far from his home. This man feels he is Yah-
weh's slave; and therefore he will be a teacher of
nations, calm, gentle, and all-prevailing. His qual-
ities all flow from the divine spirit that is poured out
upon him. The conception is quite consistent with
an expectation of return to Canaan ; but that hope is
by no means the first thing in his mind. It is never
once mentioned. Rather might we suppose that the
singer is slighting the warlike mission of “Anointed”
Cyrus, and holding that a far higher task than that is
given to Israel, the Slave; for he is to be the world's
teacher.
In xlix. 1-6 the outlook is different. The pur-
pose to teach the peoples of the world is as great as
ever, even greater; it is a purpose to give to all a
“deliverance” that is joyful life and helpfulness. It
is, however, the new willingness to stay in exile that
1 The metre in all four songs is the same. They run each of
them in sets of four lines, with six beats in each, and of these
beats the two threes in each six are parallels. Then these bexam-
eter lines are set in pairs which have again a parallelism. And
this measure is quite unlike what precedes and what follows in
each case.
SONGS OF THE SUFFERING SLAVE 209
makes this second song most wonderful. Now the
hope of return is recognised as gone and the singer
tells of his disappointment. But he says in the dark
hour he looked on Yahweh's character with its constant
justice, and gazing there he saw that to remain in
Babylon was Yahweh's gracious plan for Israel. The
singers and saints had thought that their god meant
them to go back, according to the old ancestral faith;
but it was a mistake. It would be too little, too trivial
a task for them to lead back the Hebrews to their old
homes and farms and sanctuary. By remaining in the
world's social and commercial centre they are to bring
the joy of Yahweh's love to the ends of the earth.
Here, then, was an ideal for foreign missions pro-
claimed 2,400 years ago, and that by a slave in a
foreign city, 1,000 miles away from his home-by a
slave whose traditions hitherto taught him that the
very soil of Babylon was hateful, and its people the
enemies of himself and his god.
The newer light shines through dark clouds of pain
in the third slave song, l. 4-9.
“The lordly Yahweh has given me the eloquence of his dis-
ciples,
That I may know how to revive the weary one with words
of comfort;
In the morning he wakens mine ear that I may hearken as
his disciple.
And I have not been rebellious; I have not turned back.
My back I gave to smiters, and my cheeks to those who
plucked out the beard.
My face I hid not from insult and spitting.
But the lordly Yahweh will help me; therefore am I not
confounded.
210
RELIGION AND ETHICS IN THE EXILE
Therefore I hardened my face like a flint and was sure that
I should not be ashamed.
Near is he who redresses my wrongs; who will strive with
me? Let us stand together.
Who is my opponent ? Let him draw near to me!
Behold the lordly Yahweh will help me; who is he that:
can worst me?
Behold they shall all fall to pieces like a garment; the
moths will eat them."1
Let us arrange in brief theses this man's ideas of
his god now.
First: The acceptance of Yahweh's commission
to be evangel - bearer rouses opponents to greater
hate. In other words, a sight of God makes sin more
hideous; and this, not merely in the sense that it
makes sin appear more hideous, but it causes more
hideous sins to be committed.
Secondly: Such opposition produces in the slave
of Yahweh only greater knowledge of Him, which
is greater certainty that He is ever faithful, that He
is sure to produce always far more bliss than any
suffering could outweigh.
Thirdly: Thereby the slave of Yahweh is made
more eager to carry His blessing to all, more quick
and tender to revive the weary ones with words of
comfort.
Fourthly: He becomes more humbly teachable
than before. The song of ch. xlii. was rich in
consciousness of strength possessed for the high
tasks. But here in chapter 1. is something new
and startling, an utter readiness to be a disciple,
We follow mainly Cheyne's translations in the Polychrome.
SONGS OF THE SUFFERING SLAVE
211
to awake betimes for “class-training” in the great
service.
Fifthly: The calmness is greater than ever. The
bravery of the singer now is astounding. “I turn
not back: nay, I give my back to the smiter : aye,
I give my face to spitting, and even to violent hurt!”
We must add that the singer learned directly from
his forerunner Jeremiah.'
The song which runs from lii. 13 to liü. 12, is like
the other lyrics in form and in many other respects;
but it differs from the former three, in that it makes
the other Hebrews speak of the slave of Yahweh.
The first of the four makes Yahweh speak of the
slave, announcing his commission ; the second and
third make the slave speak himself. In the second
he utters his newly received revelation, in the third,
his great danger and his greater devotion. But now,
in the fourth, he lives no more to speak. He has
died, unjustly, ignominiously. But over the grave
the strange power of death appears. Death has not
ended all ; it has caused entirely new experiences,
it has created new lives. The suffering servant has
died but to live, and to be a giver of life.
The first three stanzas of this new and greater song
seem partly uttered by Yahweh, partly by Hebrews.
These have changed their mind; they did oppose
him, and thought that Yahweh condemned him. But
they are coming over to his side; they are becoming
one with him now, and they have accepted his ideas
about the suffering slave. All chant the paradox,
Cheyne points out the close connection with Jer. xvi. 16 ;
XX, 7.
212
RELIGION AND ETHICS IN THE EXILE
the wonder which this man was in his life, and is in
death.
The fourth stanza sketches the man, poverty-
stricken, ugly.
The fifth tells how all despised him, and according
to all ordinary human judgment did so justly.
But now begins in the sixth stanza, the note of
confession. A revelation we have had in him, say
the singers, but a revelation that is regeneration in
us. We thought we understood Yahweh, and we be-
lieved that whoever suffered like this man was being
beaten of Him for his faults. We find that we were
the sinners, we the well-to-do, we the self-satisfied ;
and this man was altogether one with Yahweh. For
Yahweh wished to give us true life, and His slave suf-
fered what we deserved that we may go free and live.
The seventh stanza declares that they stand now
on his side. His death startled them, his character
bowed them in shame, so they were won over to
goodness. He has thus taken away their sin; hence-
forth they hate and abandon it. Their former con-
duct, ethics, theology, were all folly. He, living
and dying, suffered every bitterness with patience.
His body has been flung with indignity, virtually, to
the dogs; but he has obtained a posterity and pro-
longed his days in their new life as his followers.
The pleasure of Yahweh shall prosper in his dead
hands. At this point in the eleventh stanza, the text
is corrupted so that none can read it.
The end of the stanza clears up again, and in it, with
the two that follow, the singers pour out their new yet
somewhat anxious faith that the unseen future will be
SONGS OF THE SUFFERING SLAVE
213
as they sing and hope. And Yahweh's own voice
mingles again with theirs :-
“Yes it shall be :
With knowledge thereof my servant is to interpose for
many.
Therefore shall he receive a possession among the great."
A possession it is, indeed, to have such a posterity of
souls to follow him. Observe here, again, how much
of the story of Jeremiah's experience is woven into
this song." The task is accomplished. We have seen
the Hebrews rise to this great height in their view of
God and of life's task, which are exactly the same as
we see realised in Jesus 550 years later.
Cf. Jer. xi., xii., .
CHAPTER VI
THE HIDDEN RESULT
The question whether the exiled Hebrews all rose
to the high level just described, as grasped and pub-
lished in the four “Songs of the Slave," has been
answered almost always in the negative. Commonly
one hears of “The Return from the Exile," and even
theologians speak of this as if the higher mission of
the Hebrews had never been thought out or dreamed
of as likely to be accomplished. But a change in
opinion is coming about. Men are asking, Was
there ever a Return? The answer is becoming possi-
ble, and so far it is clearly in the negative.
The books of Chronicles tell us how one family,
that of “ Ezra,” did not return. Our Isaiah-singers
did their great work in 550 to 540 B.C. They said,
let us stay here in Babylon and be teachers. Two
families at least stayed; and a hundred years later,
about 450 to 440 B.C., one member of these called
Ezra was just such a “learner” as the writer of
Isaiah 1. had claimed to be. He was learned in all that
he counted the “Instruction of Yahweh.” And more
than this, he was ready to leave his home, the home
where his fathers had dwelt for five generations, and
go to the ends of the earth to teach his very dis-
tant relatives in Jerusalem. The story of Ezra is a
proof that the idea of Isaiah xlix. 1-6 was carried
214
THE HIDDEN RESULT
215
out by the Hebrews. Such, too, is the story of Ne-
hemiah of the same time. He was not only at home
in Babylon, he was in very high office, so high that
his fathers must have been there a long time. There
he lived an active, honoured life, and carried on im-
portant business, living all the time no doubt as a
worshipper of Yahweh before his king and fellow-
courtiers. And he was ready, also, to go to the
almost unknown land of Canaan to serve his royal
master there by acting as a wise governor. Of course
all this depends on the question whether the story is
reliable which is told of these men in the little books
called “Ezra” and “Nehemiah ” which are parts of
the books of Chronicles. These books date from
300 B.C. at the earliest," a century and a half later
than the supposed dates of Ezra and Nehemiah.
The books of Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi are
the works of prophets who lived in Canaan and
doubtless near Zion, about the end of the Exile cen-
tury. Their dates run from about 520 B.C. on into the
next century. They arose among a little Jewish
people who still lived about Zion, as we know a
people were left along with Jeremiah about 590 B.C.
It was not possible that these should cease to carry
on in some form the worship at their sanctuary after
the Deuteronomic way. By the end of the century,
or even fifty years after the exiles were led away,
from the year 530 to 520 B.O., these remaining folk had
had time to become comfortable and to merit the re-
proaches of Haggai for their failure to rebuild their
ruined temple. So Haggai and Zechariah stood to
See note, p. 215.
216
RELIGION AND ETHICS IN THE EXILE
preach the old righteousness. But never once do
these two hint that there were any returned exiles
in their audience. Malachi, writing later still, says
nothing to suggest that there had been a return. To
these men the old enslaved and deported people were
utterly lost and of no more account, just as in the year
700 B.C. the people of Judah troubled no more over
the people of the northern kingdom who had been
carried away to exile in 722. Those northern Israel-
ites were lost; so, too, were the people of Judah who
were exiled in 590 B.C. Those who remained, or
rather their children of the two generations follow-
ing, were the whole of Judah now. They knew of no
return from the Exile.
There is another record mentioned above which says
there was a return about 536 B.C. This we have in
Chronicles in the parts now detached and called Ezra
and Nehemiah. Chronicles, appearing after 300 B.C.,
was an heretical book, for it dared to rewrite the story
of the Hebrew people, from Adam down to its own day,
attempting thus to displace the Priestly Document,
which we now find beginning in Gen. i. and running
to the end of Kings. Chronicles was evidently in
disfavour for a long time, for when it did get ad-
mission to the Jewish canon it was set at the very
end, last among the lowest rank of inspired books.
Certain portions of it that tell of Ezra and Nehemiah
were seen to be interesting supplements to what
was told in the books of Kings; therefore, these two
portions were detached and set in a higher place.
But the historical value of these portions must rank
exactly with that of Chronicles. Torrey's careful
THE HIDDEN RESULT
217
discussion of this question seems perfectly correct;1
and his conclusion, p. 65, is : “The result of the in-
vestigation as to the historical contents of Ezra and
Nehemiah has thus been to show that, aside from the
greater part of Neh. 1-6, the book has no value what-
ever as history."? Torrey's judgment on the ques-
tion of a return from the exile is, “The fact de-
serves to be emphasised, not passed over lightly, that
outside of Ezra Nehemiah there is not a trace of any
such tradition in the Old Testament." 3 The samo
opinion is expounded in the Article “Exile " in the
Encyc. Biblica."
We may conclude that the ideal of the writer of
the Slave Songs was actually attained. The children
of the Exile remained in exile. Certainly we cannot
suppose that they all did the noble work of manifest-
ing Yahweh's character to the ends of the earth.
And we need not expect to find records of the work
of those who did so serve the world. Such service
is seldom recorded in documents. But it is of inter-
est to remember that in all parts of the world known
to us, there was at this very time a notable receptivity,
to say the least, for spiritual religion. This was the
case in China, where Confucius was born about
550 B.C., in India where Buddha was born about 480
B.C., in Persia where Zoroastrianism was reborn about
500 B.C., and in Greece where Æschylus wrote his
I The Composition and Historical Value of Ezra and Nehemiah.
By Dr. C. C. Torrey. Published by Rickers, Giessen, 1896.
? Neh. 1-6 tells the story of the rebuilding of Jerusalem by the
governor Nehemiah in 445–430 B.C.
3 Ibid., p. 62.
4 Written by Prof. Cheyne and the late Prof. Kosters.
218
RELIGION AND ETHICS IN THE EXILE
“Prometheus Vinctus” about 460 B.C. when about
forty years of age, and Socrates was born in 468 B.C.,
and Plato in 429. The influences which radiated
from the world's metropolis in Babylon touched the
homes of all these seekers after God: and among
those radiating influences we cannot leave uncounted
the high faith and words of the writer and first read-
ers of the Four Slave-Songs now found in Isaiah.
These men did breathe divine blessing to the ends
of the earth. For their instruction the far countries
were indeed waiting. To such a final climax did
Hebrew Religious thought, theology, ethics rise.
APPENDIX I
ANALYTICAL CONTENTS OF THE YAH-
WISTIC NARRATIVE
1. The Epic of the Beginnings of Life.
1. The First Day. From an autumn soil, dry, hard and
lifeless, Yahweh gathers dust, moistened by mist. He moulds
a being, and breathes in breath. It lives, an Adham. Yahweh
sets him amid pleasure, with work and care ; and warns him
that effort to get maturity will mean death. He forms next
all other beasts; but none is Adham's mate.
2. The Second Day. Yahweh fashions one side of Adham
into woman : hence originates separation from one's clan by
marriage. All beings are naive, sexually as otherwise : most
so in the Nachash family which, like children, loves to question.
So maturity is reached and sexual self-consciousness, in the
woman first. A birth follows, with pain and with sense of
bitterness in toil, and also with sense of estrangement from
Yahweh. So originate curses and degradation of some
beasts.
3. Development follows in nomad-life, in agriculture, city-
i The numbers of these sections correspond to those in the au-
thor's revision of the Yahwistic Document, given in 0. Test. The-
ology, vol. ii.
? 2a. A supplementary passage from another Yahwistic writer
describes in the form of a story the conflict of the sacrificial
methods of the herdman, or nomad, and the agriculturist. Blood
feud arises. The writer exalts the flesh feast. But the end of the
passage is lost
219
220
APPENDIX I
building, beauty, arts, blood-revenge, and the vine with its
intoxications and enslavements.
4. A folk-lore explanation of giants and their origin.
5. A similar explanation of diversity in languages, and of
the spread of peoples : Yahweh is jealous for the privileges of
the gods : Babel's early origin and that of many peoples as
they migrate. Especially prominent is the rise of “men of
Shem” (i.e., people of name or character).
6. One migrator, Abram (exalted father), is conscious of
communications with Yahweh and is full of ideals and
purpose. He reaches Shechem, begins a sanctuary and a
Torah-place, and is wealthy. A relative, Lot, settles in the
Sodom and Gomorrah region. The stories of folk-lore are
now all grouped successively around various sanctuaries.
SHECHEM is the first central point of events.
7. The writer describes the chief ideal and hope of the
Hebrews, as grasped by the great ancestor while in communion
with Yahweh, and solemnly inaugurated by a sacrificial feast
(the victims are a he-goat, a ram, each three years, or
days, old, and a young turtle dove), with peculiar ritual
which is symbolical of a sharing of both the food and agree-
ment between the two. The hope was one of empire, which
was regarded as attained under Solomon, cf. 1 Kings viii. 65. ?
8. The customary concubinage, slavery, and blood-feud
between clans of Hebrews and Egyptians : Yahweh altars,
faiths, and oracles exist among both and among the related
nomads of the Arabian steppes.
9. and 10. Idyllic and very anthropomorphic pictures of an
appearance of Yahweh-who is at one time thought of in the
singular number and at other times as a plural, to the ancestor
who is now called Abraham, while his wife is called Sarah.
1 3a. A supplementary passage describes a great inundation
which lasts about a month. Eight persons, seven pairs of each
clean animal, and a pair of every unclean sort are saved in a
great boat. The story is a version of the common oriental or
Euphrates valley tradition.
? This is indicative of the writer's date.
THE YAHWISTIC NARRATIVE
221
There is a joyful realisation that Sarah is conceiving with a
play on the child's name, Isaac (laughter).
11. A picture of disgusting and wilful wrong-doing, as the
reason for the origin of the Salt Sea, and the ruin of the
plain. This geologic cataclysm is regarded as subsequent to
the immigration of Abraham, which is, therefore, set in a
prehistoric age.
12. A dishonourable origin imputed to two sister tribes,
Moab and Ammon, who were afterward enemies of the
Hebrews.
13. The great ancestor's numerous sons : clan chiefs, co-
ordinate with the specially favoured heir, Isaac.
14. The care of the proper blood-descent: with two fine
pictures, one of a slave's devotion and oath, one of a mar-
riage.
15. Isaac's wilful deceit, and exposure: nevertheless he
gets his blessings.
16. He makes covenants with Philistines concerning the
difficult question of wells beside whom he is a constant Ger
(sojourner) and who recognise that Yahweh is his tribal deity
and defence. They hold a sacrificial drinking feast together:
he plants a sacred tree (WX or possibly 70x) for Yahweh.
This sanctuary is BEERSHEBA, the second great central point of
events.
17. How Edom is not favoured of Yahweh so much as his
less manly brother Jacob (the Supplanter).
18. How the Supplanter gains through the deceitfulness
of his Aramæan mother, and by his own lies.
19. Blood-feud between Edom and Jacob: more Aramaan
alliance is the result.
20. Again idyllic pictures of shepherds, loves, blood-
kinships, strife in the harem, superstitious love-potions, and
tribe-origins.
21. Eastern ways in bargains and hire : Jacob's cunning.
22. Jacob's exodus from Aram : his altar and sacrifice with
craft outwit those of his father-in-law, Laban. Origin of
Gilead, or Mizpah, discussed: this MIZPAH is the third central
222
APPENDIX I
sanctuary in the story. It is an east Jordan sanctuary; cf.
Gen. 1. 10 f. ; and Joshua xxii., especially v. 27.
23. A treaty with gifts between Edom, the land of Seir,
and Jacob.
24. The origin of the honourable name “Israel” to replace
the dishonourable one “ Jacob ” explained by a theophany :
also an earnest effort of Israel to grasp the character of Yahweh.
The origin of a sacrificial custom is also referred to this period.
25. The Edomite and the Israelite tribes meet in peace: and
then finally their courses in the world diverge. A list of
Edomite sheiks is given.
26. A Shechemite effort at marriage alliance with Israel is
bitterly resented by the tribes Simeon and Levi. Is this an
echo of jealousy of the old Shechem sanctuary? Note that
Levi is a leader in the attack.
27. The sanctuary specially called BETH-EL (house of deity)
with its sacred pillar ís traced to a theophany, when Israel
grasps the ancient ideal of empire as his own hope. This is
the fourth great central sanctuary in the story.
28. Benjamin's origin near Ephrath, amid sorrow.
29, Reuben's impurity.
Judah’s likewise and his dishonourable posterity.
Joseph is described as honoured from boyhood by the
rightful authority of the clan, and therefore envied by his
fellow tribes. Judah defends him. Yet he has to endure
slavery through the connivance of the Ishmael tribe. He is
slave to the Egyptians. Prosperity follows him. He is made
a priest in Egypt, becomes a seer, then a prince next to the
Pharaoh, wisely conducting the state through a famine.
37. All Israel migrates to Egypt for food, and the prince
Joseph gradually reveals himself. Judah is meanwhile their
truly noble chief and spokesman. Special favour is shown to
Benjamin at first; but ultimately he drops almost out of
notice. Joseph seems to practise divination with a drinking
cup.
31. The migrating Hebrews settle in a district called
Goshen, to be well away from the Egyptians who are said to
THE YAHWISTIC NARRATIVE
223
et
abominate all such as use herds and flocks as means of life.
Some become Pharaoh's cattle keepers. All find food and a
new home.
32. Joseph, the Hebrew prince in Egypt, is described as
founder of a system of royal ownership of all land except that
of the priests, the land being let by the crown to agricult-
urists at a rent of one-fifth of the produce.
33. The dying patriarch, Jacob, chants his last wishes and
blessings, and prophesies thus:
i. Ephraim is to advance to be the foremost representative of
Joseph-by another peculiar disregard of primogeniture.
ii. Reuben is to fail through lust-worship.
ii. Simeon, and Levi who seems added here as if he were not
originally a really independent Hebrew, are undesirable
men of war and violence.
iv. Judab is to be a ruling and law-giving tribe up to a dreadful
day-but the text here becomes hopelessly obscure. Does
it mean “until Solomon come”? The Yahwist tells the
story to that date and then ceases. Why? Did he think
the separation of the kingdoms was the end of the steady
rise of Hebrew story ?
v. Zebulun is to be a sea-coast folk near Sidon.
vi. Issachar is to be comfortable, but conquered and tributary.
vii. Dan is to be a source of Judges, and also serpent-like.
viii. Gad is a " trooping” folk.
ix. Asher shall be blessed and a royal abode.
x. Naphtali is to be fair.
xi. Joseph is to be the richest of all. Though many try to hinder
him, yet the god Shaddai will give him all bliss in posses-
sions and populousness.
xii. Benjamin is to be always preying, like a wolf.
So the patriarch dies. He is embalmed in Egyptian fash-
ion and buried in Canaan. A great mourning service is held
on the east of Jordan. This seems to be another glorifying
of the third great sanctuary. See 22 above.
(Here ends the Story of Origins.)
224
APPENDIX I
2. The Epic of the Exodus.
34. A whole age passes. The Hebrews multiply in Goshen
greatly. A Pharaoh is crowned who is unaware of the Joseph
epoch; he enslaves the Hebrews in various ways, especially
in making them build the cities of Pithom and Raamses.
35. The future deliverer, a child of Pharaoh's court, wan-
ders in Midian as an exile. He marries into the family of the
priest of Yahweh there. There is another fine scene by a
well, with shepherd maidens.
36. Yahweh leads the deliverer back to Egypt. On the way
he has two theophanies, especially at the fifth great sanctuary
and central point of story in the MOUNTAINS OF SINAI.
One theophany is given as an explanation of the circumcision of
bridegrooms. The second describes a vision of flame passing
through a sacred thorn-tree : and, thereupon, Moses grasps his
ideal and his life purpose, which is : to emancipate the Hebrews
and lead them to Canaan; to win the Hebrew elders' confidence by
peculiar signs, one of which is notably connected with the Nachash
totem and serpent divinations; and to demand from the Pharaoh
liberty for a three days' pilgrimage to this Yahweh sanctuary (Sinai
or Qadesh).
37. Moses's return to Egypt; with pictures of brick-making
and the whitening of the bricks with stubble ; also a mutiny
of Hebrews against Moses, because his request to Pharaoh
has been punished by cruelty to them.
38. At Moses's prayer to Yahweh amid this trouble, there
follows a severe poisoning of the Nile waters, which Moses in-
terprets as sent from Yahweh who is truly a god. This is
the first plague and sign. There were in all seven such
plagues : all of them natural Egyptian evils.
39. After seven days, Moses declares that swarms of frogs
will come as a second plague from Yahweh. The frog-swarms
come. Pharaoh yields. At Moses's intercession the plague
ceases. But now the monarch's self-importance revives, and
he refuses to keep his promise.
THE YAFWISTIC NARRATIVE
225
40. By an inspiration from Yahweh, Moses declares that
the swarms of the dog-fly that invade and plague Egypt, but
shall avoid and spare Goshen and the Hebrews, are a third act
of Yahweh. The flies come and Pharaoh says, “Sacrifice:
but do so here in Egypt.” Moses declines, for, says he, “ the
sacrifice would disgust the Egyptians.” So Pharaoh yields :
Moses intercedes: the dog-flies pass away: but Pharaoh is
again self-important and obstinate.
41. By another inspiration Moses declares that a fourth
plague which will come deadly to the cattle of Egypt, while
Goshen escapes is really from Yahweh. Pharaoh is self-im-
portant again, perhaps through jealousy.
42. A fifth plague, a terrible storm, comes in due season,
ruining Egypt's precious crops. Pharaoh is much humbled,
acknowledging that this is from Yahweh, and is spared further
storm. A note describes how the early crops were ruined, but
the later ones were spared. Pharaoh again fails, and is self-
important.
43. Similarly the sixth plague, that of locusts, visits Egypt,
Moses claiming it as Yahweh's work. Pharaoh's slaves re-
monstrate with their lord. Pharaoh yields. He contends with
Moses over terms, and will let only grown men go to the
sacrifice. Finally, he drives Moses out. The Yahweh-wind
brings the locusts. Pharaoh yields. The locusts go. Pha-
raoh bargains again, saying "Go! but only persons, no cattle."
He says he will kill Moses if he show himself again.
44. New and awful inspiration rises in Moses: all Egyp-
tian first-born are to die. This is to be the seventh judgment.
This will prove to all who Yahweh is, and it will end the
oppression. Moses goes away from the palace in wrath.
45. Moses ordains a Pasch (passover) or a blood covenant
with Yahweh that he may pass over them when he comes with
the final deadly plague. The terrible death falls in all Egypt.
The Egyptian king and folk hasten the Hebrews away.
It is an awful night of watching, truly a Yahweh-night to
be remembered. So all Hebrew first-born are henceforth to
be devoted to Yahweh ; and since the haste compelled the
226
APPENDIX I
use of unleavened bread, therefore here, says the writer, orig-
inated the rite of Unleavened Bread at the Feast of the
Spring-time.
46. A Song on that Day.
The constant sacrificial fire and smoke are to be the symbol
of Yahweh's ever-present guidance.
47. The narrative is resumed. Pharaoh regrets his yield-
ing: he arms his hosts and pursues the Hebrews. They are
terrified and mutiny, and would run into Pharaoh's arms.
Moses is heroic in faith that Yahweh is sure to save. The
sacrificial fires-emblems of Yahweh-are moved to the rear
of the camp, dazzling the Egyptians and defending the
Hebrews. A strong wind dries a shallow water stretch : the
Egyptians seem to take its bed for a road. They turn to flee.
A strong wind raises the waters, which engulf them.'
48. The writer notes that this time would be the origin of
a well-known “Song of the Triumph of Moses,” which he
quotes.
49. The march in the steppe begins; first, from the sea of
Reeds to the Shur-steppe, where trouble rises because there
are bitter-waters. By a divine inspiration to strike the water
with a certain sort of wood, it is made drinkable. The march
proceeds to an oasis, blessed with plenty of water and palm
trees. At the next place there is again a water-famine and
the people try Yahweh.
50. Here Moses is near the home of his father-in-law, the
priest of Midian, who listens.to the story of the escape, and
chants his song of faith in Yahweh as the overlord of all gods.
51. We reach now, again, the fifth sanctuary or great central
point of the story, i.e., the MOUNTAIN OF SINAI, commonly
called “The Mountain,” which is Yahweh's place for touching
1 It is notable that the Yahwist does not make the Hebrews cross
the bed of the reedy sea. It is the Egyptian army that tries to do
so in their hasty pursuit.
? This use of the word “try” (703) is important and is char-
acteristic of the Yahwist. With him the people « try " Yahweh :
whereas in the Elohistic story Yahweh “ tries” the people.
THE YAHWISTIC NARRATIVE
227
earth. It is described as cloudy and fiery. Moses is inspired
to ascend; but he is then bidden go down again to warn all
the people, and even the priests of Yahweh, not to come near
the Mountain. However, he then summons his brother,
Aaron, and also one Nadab (Generous one) and one Abihu and
seventy other elders to ascend with him. They all ascend and
see the god of Israel and feast with him. The floor where he
52. By inspiration Moses ascends again all alone and pro-
claims “ The Name Yahweh.” Yahweh utters certain great
sounds in his presence, which Moses carves on two stone
tablets that he has prepared. The utterances are interpreted
as the following Declaration of Agreement and Instruction :
A. Declaration of Agreement:
Yahweh is the Great Performer: his deeds for Israel shall
be amazing to all men. This is the promise which he
makes on his part.
B. They shall agree on their part to the following:
I. To worship no other deity besides Yahweh, who is El-Qanna,
the ever-jealous deity.
II. To make no molten images of deity for themselves.
III. To devote all first-born creatures to Yahweh, either slaying
them or redeeming them.
IV. Only for six consecutive days is there to be any slave-toil :
on the seventh there is to be a sort of worship of the
“ Cutting-off” as something connected with Yahweh.
V. A dance-festival and a week of unleavened bread are to be
held at the time of the spring moon, to commemorate
the flight from Egypt.
VI. A dance-festival is to be held at the end of the corn-harvest:
and one at the end of the year (i.e., at the grape-
harvest).
VII. Yahweh's slaughter-feasts are to be kept absolutely pure
from all leaven (fermentation, putrefaction ?)."
VIII. At the feast of unleavened bread, or passover ak the flesh
must be eaten up in the same night.
1 Cf. Smith, Rel. Sem., 203.
228
APPENDIX I
IX. All first-fruits of agricultural produce are to be used in a
Yahweh service.
X. Kid-flesh sacrifices are not to be prepared in goat's milk."
Moses is absent in Sinai forty days while preparing the in-
scribed tablets.
53. The people meanwhile mutiny and riot: Moses pleads
with Yahweh that they may be spared the judgments they
deserve. Descending to the camp, he summons all who have
remained faithful to help in a slaughter of the offenders.
The Levi-clan hasten to obey the summons, and destroy a
great number. Moses, therefore, appoints these as a special
Yahweh-guard for ever.2
54. Here follows a thoroughly anthropomorphic but fine
picture of a controversy between Yahweh and Moses. Yah-
then yielding, and at last he grants a special vision of his
character and even his form to Moses. The deliverer is anx-
ious, and even vexed, then he pleads till at last he prevails,
and he sees the great vision. He sees the face that is to go
for ever with the people, patient, forgiving and restoring.
He utters a great cry of l'ecognition, adoration, and faith.
Religiously viewed, this is perhaps the highest point in the
whole document.
55. Moses invites his father-in-law, the priest of Midian,
to accompany the Hebrews to the desired land; but he de-
clines.
56. They march: in front is carried a casket containing
Yahweh's “ Agreement” with them, and Moses addresses it
57. Another mutiny and clamour for flesh-food is raised by
the “ riff-raff” camp-followers. They despise the provided
" Man" food, which is here described. There comes an
? Many primitive people regard milk as a kind of equivalent of
blood. Smith, Rel. Sem., 1894, p. 221.
? It is notable that the Yahwist gives such a military origin to the
Levi-priesthood. This recalls No. 26 above.
THE YAHWISTIC NARRATIVE
229
enormous flight of quail down the wind. The people gather
and eat some, and preserve some. A plague breaks out, and
many dead are buried.
58. Arrived at certain villages south of Hebron, Moses
sends spies into Canaan. They report the Neghebh-land near
Hebron a rich land, but the cities strong, and that men of
the Anaq (necklace) tribe dwell there. The people are in
terror and mutiny again. Kaleb (Dog), one of the spies, is
the only fearless man: he is full of trust in Yahweh, and so
he stills the folk. Moses is inspired to pronounce a judg-
ment against the sin of mutiny. All the mutineers shall die
in the steppes, and see nothing of Canaan. Kaleb alone is to
enter the promised land. All this is probably to be taken as
occurring at KADESH, the sixth sanctuary and central point of
the story.
59. Again there is a mutiny, led by one Korah and a Philis-
tine, with a band of important men. Their complaint is that
the people are not led on to agricultural life in Canaan, but
remain nomads in the steppes. Moses insists that he is not
seeking to be a nomad sheik, but is following divine inspira-
tion. There comes a fearful earthquake : the mutineers are
swallowed up in a chasm, and go down to Sheol.
60. A series of stages are recorded, including perhaps a
misplaced reference to the water-mutiny at Kadesh whence
the spies went out to the Neghebh : a victory over a prince
Arad of the Neghebh, who attacked the people but was
utterly destroyed : also a well-scene, to which is attributed
the origin of a noted song: thence the way by Mattan,
Nachali-El and Bamoth to the Moabite valley lands.
61. The wanderers dispossess certain Amorites of the east
of Jordan. Moab is afraid, and leagues with Midian to op-
pose them. These two peoples invite a Yahweh-prophet of
Midian, one Balaam by name, to curse Israel for them. Pro-
fessing entire submission to Yahweh, Balaam goes with his
two lads, but Yahweh is hotly angry against him and plants
himself in the way as a “Satan.” The ass sees Yahweh: Ba-
laam does not. The ass speaks : Balaam is startled, and is
230
APPENDIX I
subdued as he sees that Yahweh is dealing with him. He
goes to Moab, but it is to bless Israel. His oracle is a
singular production. The seer is pictured as very conceited.
He proclaims the fall of Agag, Israel's Amalekite enemy of
the days of Saul, and a great exaltation of Israel. The Moab-
ite prince demurs to all this; but Balaam only sings on more
fully his oracle of Israel's supremacy over Moab.
62. Worship of certain deities supposed to delight in
sexual revelries arises through contact with Moab. Women
are the leaders in the worship. Moses, moved by inspira-
tion, hangs all the chiefs for this sin in front of a sun-deity.
63. The clans of Reuben and Gad prefer to settle in the
east Jordan lands. They promise a war-league with the other
Hebrew tribes, so long as they are needed to help in con-
quering the west Jordan country.
64. The Machirites, descended from Joseph through Manas-
seh, take possession of part of Gilead, subduing the Amorite
inhabitants.
65. Here follows a poem called “Moses's Blessing.” It
celebrates the actual subduing and settlement of Canaan.
Then it wishes :-
For Reuben, long endurance ;
For Simeon, divine revelations ;
For Levi, the office of Torah-giver and sacrificial leader, as a re-
ward for loyalty to Yahweh.
For Judah, blessings of wealth ; and also deliverance from oppres-
sion.2
For Benjamin, that Yahweh dwell beside him.
For Joseph, all kinds of wealth, from the land and from the sea-
sons and the stars, and special favour from the Thorn-bush deity,
the god of Seneb (or Sinai), all to distinguish him above his
fellow Hebrews
For Zebulun, successful expeditions.
This is remarkable. Was the author a Simeonite ?
* This shows knowledge of the Davidic dynasty and of the situa-
tion of its sanctuary near these two tribes.
THE YAHWISTIC NARRATIVE
231
For Issachar, wealth through fishing and coast life, and a much.
honoured sanctuary in their tribal territory.'
For Gad, great distinctions, chieftaincy, over peoples, the posi-
tion of law-giver, also large populousness: all this through
lion-like deeds of war and violence, and through strict adher-
ence to Yahweh morals.
For Dan, fierceness with wandering warlike ways.
For Naphtali, wealth from the sea and the lower slopes of Lebanon.
For Asher, rich wealth from mines, for unmeasured ages.?
The panegyric ends with a tribute of praise to Yahweh,
the god of Jeshurun or Israel. He is a sky god, a cloud
god, an eastern god. He has ejected peoples to provide his
own people with a country, where they dwell quite apart from
other nations. He has been a saving god and a warrior-god.3
66. The record of the belief that Moses disappeared in the
mountains northeast of the Dead Sea ; that it was Yahweh
who carried him away; that Yahweh showed him from the
mountain-top the west Jordan lands, and then buried him
near a sanctuary of the sex-god Peor, overlooking those lands,
as if to witness thence the fulfilment of the pledge and gift
of this land to the Hebrews.
Here ends the Story of Deliverance from subjection to
Egypt.
3. The Epic of the Settlement West of Jordan, under Joshua.
67. A record of belief that circumcision of all Hebrews
was performed by Joshua under inspiration at GILGAL (roll-
ing), which is the seventh notable sanctuary, just after the
entry into the west Jordan country, and that it was a token of
the completed rolling away of the shame of Egyptian slavery."
So this is pre-Deuteronomic.
? All these indicate the author's full acquaintance with the posi-
tions of the tribes after they have got well settled in Canaan.
3 The idea of Yahweh as a saviour is very notable. Thus far, his
saving is effected by military exploits.
* This is the second Yahwistic explanation of the origin of the rite.
232
APPENDIX I
68. How, under inspiration, the Judah tribe began the con-
quest by taking Jerusalem, using horrible cruelty.
69. The writer thinks this event must have been the origin
of a certain well-known song, concerning passive help given
by the sun-and moon gods in one of the old conquests. The
song has been incorporated, says the writer, in the so-called
"Iashar” Record. “ Stories of a Straightforward One,"
probably an Epic on Israel.'
70. How the Judahites allowed Jebusites of Canaan to
dwell beside them in Jerusalem. And now Kaleb, the Keniz-
zite, and his folk, took Hebron, previously called Kiryath-
arba (the Four Cross-Roads). Also how Hobab, a Kenite,
settled to the south of these beside the Amalekites. The
Kenizzites and Kenites seem to have been non-Hebrews that
had attached themselves to the Judah clan. The name Kaleb,
or Dog, and the treatment of this personage in some of the
literature, especially the traditional exclusion of the Dog from
Paradise suggest some dislike of these non-Hebrews. The
story is threaded through with folk-lore and much poetic
beauty.
71. How the tribe of the Simeonites accompanied the Ju-
dahites and settled in the south, using violence.
72. The story of Joseph's settlement, with violence, at Ai
and at Luz, which was henceforth called Beth-El. This
means that the tribe of Joseph planted a sanctuary there at
that time. Some of the Luzites are spared and emigrate to
the north, where they build a new town of Luz in the land of
the Hittites.
The Manasseh section of the tribe finds difficulty in dis-
possessing those they attack, but they settle beside them for
a while and grow stronger, and then compel these tribes to
pay tribute.
So likewise do the Ephraim section.
However, this tribe has too little room, and complains to
Joshua. With his sanction, the Machir portion of the Manas-
The song or the idea of it comes from far back in the time of
star- and sky-worship.
THE YAHWISTIC NARRATIVE
233
sites attack and take an east Jordan region, settling along-
side the aborigines.
(Probably a paragraph concerning Benjamin and Issachar is
lost.)
73. Zebulun sits down beside the Qitronim and the Nachlo-
lim, but later on they make these tributary.
74. So Asher does with the aborigines of Acco, Sidon, etc.,
in the northwestern land.
75. Naphtali does the same with the people of the sanctuary
of the sun and another place called Beth-Anath.'
76. The Amorites press the Danites very hard and these
move off to another place called Leshem. They take this and
call it Dan. The Josephites ultimately make tributaries of
the resisting Amorites.
77. The writer's theory of Yahweh's purpose in letting the
aborigines live on thus, beside the Hebrews, is that those
natives would teach Yahweh's people to be warlike.
4. Stories of Heroes who Saved the Ibhrim (Hebrews) in Times
of Oppression by Surrounding Peoples.
78. Record of the removal of Yahweh's Representative-
whether this is a man, or a vision, is not said—from Gilgal to
Beth-El. So Beth-El becomes a great chief sanctuary.
Ehud, the Geraite of Benjamin, assassinates Eglon, sheik
of Moab, the overlord over the Hebrews. So the Moabites
are subdued before the Hebrews under Ehud.
79. Of Gideon, the Abiezrite, who is inspired by a Yah-
weh messenger, in the days of the Midianite oppression of
the Hebrews and their sad enfeeblement. There is a picture
of the divine theophany, and Gideon's erection of an altar :
of his gathering a little band of barley-bread eaters, i.e., very
poor men : and his attack on the Midianite camp. How the
tribes of Naphtali, Asher, and Manasseh come and help him.
The Ephraimites come too and capture " Crow” and “ Wolf,"
two Midianite sheiks ; but they are angry at being summoned
This Anath was evidently a deity.
234
APPENDIX I
to do this. Gideon, alias Jerubbaal, soothes them; then hav-
ing delivered Israel, he retires quietly to his home.
80. The Canaanites of Shechem rise in scornful mutiny
against Abimelek, the son of Gideon ; but he hears of it, and
comes down on them unawares, with great force, and subdues
them. Then he lives on quietly among his people.
81. The record of oppression by Philistines, and the deliver-
ance by the son of Manoah, born to unexpectant parents, after
strange theophanies at a sanctuary in Dan. The youth is
from his birth an ascetic, religiously pledged to drink nothing
intoxicating. He is called Samson (Shimshon, “He of the
Sun”). He has peculiar excitement of spirit at times, and
then is regarded as possessed by the Yahweh spirit. He loves
a Philistine woman and insists on wedding her. On one of
his lover-visits, he tears a lion in pieces that meets him on
the way ; later on, he finds a swarm of bees and quantities of
honeycomb in the carcass. At his wedding he makes a riddle
of this; his wife induces him to explain it, and the company
ridicule him. He takes an awful revenge. His wife is with-
held from him by her father : again he takes terrible ven-
geance. The oppressed Hebrews fear the consequences of
this and try to capture him : his great strength quite out-
does them, and he works again murderously among the
Philistines.
He loves again, and it is again a Philistine woman, one
Delilah. All attempts of the Philistines to take him at his
lover-visits fail utterly through his great physical power. At
last he lets his lover shave his head, and then his strength
wanes. He is imprisoned and put in chains; his eyes are put
out. But the hair grows again, and the strength and the Yah-
weh excitement come back. The Philistines have a religious
feast, and in their merriment they think to use him as a sport-
maker; but holding by the pillars of the temple balcony, he
bends with awful vehemence, and the building falls, destroy-
ing a great company of his tormentors with himself.'
1 The story seems to be an adaptation of solar myths circling
round the shrine of the Sun-god at Baalbec.
THE YAHWISTIC NARRATIVE
235
82. Concerning a Levite who lives in Ephraim, and whose
wife run away. When the husband is fetching her home,
the Benjaminites of Gibeah abuse him, and in sodomite
ways they put the woman to a horrible death. The man sum-
mons all other Hebrews by a barbarous message to avenge
him. The Benjaminites are nearly exterminated, men, women,
and children; only a few warriors escape. For these men
wives are obtained by rape, at a sacrifice festival in Shilo.
All this, says the writer, shows how there was little or no
common law or common action among the Hebrews, and how
some system in society, and mutual agreements, and a com-
mon government, and indeed, a king, were sorely needed.
5. The Gilgal Story of the Kingdom.
How the David-dynasty arose, how the nation grew great and be-
gan to regard Jerusalem as the centre of law-giving and of
religious observances.
83. Of Samuel, the Ephraimite seer and priest; how he
finds Saul of Benjamin seeking lost asses, and guides him.
How an inspiration of Yahweh leads this Ephraimite priest to
see in Saul a fit king for Israel; how he has him share in a
flesh-sacrifice, and then anoints him "to close up the ranks
among Yahweh's people, and to save them from all enemies,"
giving him signs that will confirm this oracular call.
84. Saul goes home : all the signs come to pass. He is
filled with the dervish-like inspiration, and all men see it,
some being much startled by the sight. The writer thinks
this must have been the occasion of the rise of a well-known
proverb. Saul conceals the story of his anointing.
85. The Ammonites threaten to abuse a Hebrew town bru-
tally. The story thrills Saul: the spirit of the gods fills him.
He commands all the tribes to assemble to him for war against
Ammon. He is magnificently successful, and all repair to
the old “Stone-beap” sanctuary at Gilgal, the seventh great
sanctuary (see 68), and with sacrifices there they make him
king.
236
APPENDIX I
86. Saul forms a standing army, with his son Jonathan as
his lieutenant-general; at once these throw off their semi-
allegiance to the Philistines, with the result that all that na-
tions forces are gathered for a re-conquest. Many Hebrews
fly in terror to caves and rocks for hiding, many also fleeing
to East Jordan.
87. A description of Saul's little army, and of the great
triple host of Philistines and of its disposition.
88. At the place of encounter by the gorge of Michmash,
Jonathan and his servant devise a single-handed attack. They
scale the heights and reach the Philistine camp. Encouraged
by their reading of signs, they leap into the fortification, and
by a wild attack they create a panic. In confusion the Phil-
istines hew down each man his neighbour, while all beholding
from afar count it a visitation of the gods.
89. Saul discovers what is happening by divination with a
priestly ephod or coat, and marches to the victorious attack,
all his people gathering great courage, until there is wide-
spread carnage.
90. Of Saul's rash vow, and order to abstain from food. Of
Jonathan's unwitting violation of this. Of the people's haste
to eat, even neglecting religious custom, and devouring blood.
How Saul builds his first altar, or place of sacrifice. The
gods are, however, supposed to be ill pleased. By divina-
tion and lots the king concludes that his son Jonathan is the
cause of this displeasure, and he proposes to kill him; but
the people deliver him from his father. "
91. The Philistines retire and leave the Hebrews free. Saul
carefully strengthens his standing army.
92. How the Yahweh-spirit ceases to inspire Saul; but, on
the contrary, there seems to hover about him a divine spirit
that causes him terror. To ward off these terrors, the king's
servants persuade him to let them bring a harper whose music
shall soothe him.
" It is to be noted that the word Elohim is often used now as the
general designation for 6 deities,” but the name Yahweh is still the
personal name for the Israelite deity.
THE YAHWISTIC NARRATIVE
237
93. They find a man of skill, son of one Ishai, known as
David (Beloved), who is a cunning harper, and also a great
soldier, wise and full of resource. Saul appoints him as
his physician, and learns to love him. David plays sweetly
and wondrously when Saul is troubled, and then the trouble
ceases. David's wisdom and skill in affairs, and especially
his military powers, make him precious to Saul and a favourite
with the people.
94. But the people's praise of this assistant makes the king
jealous. On a day when the evil mood comes on and David
brings in his harp to play, Saul hurls a spear at him, and David
barely escapes death.
95. The king learns that his daughter loves David; so,
in his ill-mood, he thinks to use this affection for luring the
gifted man to destruction. He lets it be told David that
the dowry to be paid for the princess is a hundred dead and
dishonoured Philistines. The harper is himself a bloody man,
and easily kills his hundred and wins his royal bride.
96. Saul believes that Yahweh favours David; and the
people grow fonder of him. The king becomes afraid of him
and hates him; but the man's reputation and his “character-
name" (David, Beloved) become more firmly established at
home and abroad.
97. David flees for his life. He takes counsel with the
king's son and lieutenant-general, who refuses at first to be-
lieve there is danger; but he soon learns the truth. At table
Saul asks for David. Jonathan says that David's brother has
commanded him to attend a family sacrifice. The king is en-
raged and strikes at his son, which is a serious dishonour.
Jonathan hastens to bid David flee away.
98. David escapes. He establishes himself in a stronghold
called Adullam. Round him gather his relatives, and a whole
band of men, especially such as are in any misfortune. So
insurrection begins.
99. David intrusts his father and mother to the kindly care
of the king of Moab.
100. Saul hears of the insurrection and frets over it.
238
APPENDIX I
101. One Doeg, an Edomite, reports to the king how
Abimelek, priest at the sanctuary of Nob, bas aided David.
Saul sends for the priest and his clan and, by the Edomite's
hand, for all others of his slaves refuse, he murders them
all save one, Abiathar, who escapes to David.
102. David attacks the Philistines who are plundering the
town of Qeilah. He makes divinations with an ephod, which
encourage him ; he marches to the attack and has great suc-
cess. He stays in the town Qeilah.
103. Saul learns of David's stay there, and plans to take
him. David has divine guidance and retires to the steppe
and to the mountain fastnesses.
104. The people of the steppe of Ziph plot to betray David
to Saul. David moves away to the Jordan gorge (Arabah).
The two leaders evade or miss each other, with only a moun-
tain range between them. David is nearly caught; but Saul
is called off by a Philistine raid.
105. David is in a fastness among the haunts of the cham-
ois, near the Well-of-the-Kid. Saul pursues him again to
the very cave wherein David and his men lie hidden. David
is urged to strike the king and be free, but reverence for
Yahweh's Anointed (Mashich) restrains him. The king hears
of this and is conscience-stricken; he openly acknowledges
David's goodness, and prophesies Yahweh's requital of such
nobility.
106. Concerning the rich churl, a Calebite or Dog-tribes-
man, known by the name of Nabal (Empty-fool). He lives
in the southern vineland, Carmel. David marches against
him. The man's excellent wife, Abigail, comes with food to
meet David. The churl dies ere long, after a surfeit, much
terrified on hearing into what danger he has come.
107. David woos and weds Abigail. He marries also Ahi-
noam from Jezreel; but his wife Michal is given by Saul to
another man.
108, David is weary of wandering about in the Hebrew
land to escape from Saul. He goes away to the Philistine
king of Gath. This prince gives him Ziqlag, which is thence-
THE YAHWISTIC NARRATIVE
.239
forward a town of Judah. David wars on peoples to the
south, viz., Gezirites and Amalekites. He kills every living
soul to prevent reports reaching the Philistines. He tells
the king of Gath a falsehood, who thinks David is alienating
himself from the Hebrews. On a day when the Philistines set
out to invade Israel, and David professes readiness to go too,
the Philistine princes forbid his going, declaring he will be a
Satan to them.
109. On returning from the Philistine gathering place, he
finds that the Amalekites have plundered his own town,
Ziqlag. His men nearly mutiny in their despair. He divines
with the priestly ephod; and feeling encouraged he pursues
the spoilers, kills nearly every man of them, and saves all
that had been lost. Moved with indignation at the selfish-
ness of certain evil fellows in his troop, he utters a judgment
which passes into a standing statute in Israel for cases of di-
vision of spoil, viz., the garrison defending the home posts
shall share in the spoil equally with the troops who go to the
front. He sends also shares of the spoil to many towns of
Judah.
110. The story of the Philistine campaign and Saul's fall
and death. The king dares not ask Yahweh to counsel him :
he has long ceased to receive any revelation from the god of
Israel. So he goes to a woman at the well of Dor who prac-
tises incantations, ventriloquism, and consultation of departed
spirits. She professes to summon up the now long dead
prophet Samuel : the supposed speech of Samuel is a fearful
discouragement to the poor king, who is already well-nigh
worn out.
111. There is a fierce attack of Philistines against Israel in
the mountain range of Gilboa and many Israelites fall. The
king and three of his sons are slain. The Philistines dis-
honour the dead king's body : but the people of Jabesh-Gilead
give it honourable burial under a sacred tree in their city.
112. How David hears in Ziqlag of the death of Saul; and
with his men makes a great lamentation over the fallen
prince.
240
APPENDIX I
113. The writer incorporates here a fine elegy on Saul, at-
tributing it to David. The song seems to have five stanzas,
and a somewhat regular refrain.
114. David, relying on his sense of divine guidance, pro.
ceeds to Hebron with his following; he is received royally
by all the tribe of Judah and is made their king.
115. At once, as king, he honours significantly the town
and men of Jabesh-Gilead who had honoured King Saul even
when dead.
116. Meanwhile, Saul's surviving son and heir, Ish-Baal,
takes his father's crown; there is a bloody struggle between
his army and David's.
117. David's power increases steadily.
118. Ish-Baal's general, Abner, marries a concubine of the
dead Saul : King Ish-Baal and he quarrel over this. The gen-
eral deserts to David, who is pleased; David's general, named
Joab, is jealous and assassinates the newcomer. The king
and people of Judah sorrow bitterly for Abner.
119. King Ish-Baal loses prestige, and assassins murder
him: David executes the murderers, but does it brutally.
120. The Hebrew tribes unite to crown David king over
them all : Hebron is still the capital city.
121. The Philistines of the coast make war on the new
ruler: he believes he has revelations and help from Yahweh :
Reassured thus, he meets the Philistines and defeats them
again and again : David's troops refuse to let their king go
into battle in person.
122. Lists of David's braves, the numbers somewhat con-
fused : A fine tale of their devotion to David is added.
123. How the king collects a large army from all Israel
and besieges and takes Jerusalem from the Jebusites : He
makes this place his capital, building a palace for himself,
with skilled assistance from Tyre.
124. He resolves to establish a Yahweh-sanctuary in his
capital : after fears and delays he proceeds, and holds a sacri-
ficial feast and dances, in which he takes part merrily with all
the people.
THE YAHWISTIC NARRATIVE
241
125. How the king extends his power over Aram (Syria) and
Edom, enslaving the people.
· 126. Lists of his sons by his six wives in Hebron ; also
of the concubines he took after he came to Jerusalem and of
the sons born to him there.
127. Of his priests ; viz., Zadok and Abiathar and his own
sons. His scribe is also named, likewise his captain of the
foreign troops, which consist of Philistines and Cretans.
128. The king feels divinely inspired to hold a census.
The commander of the troops objects; but the king insists.
129. A strange uncertainty seizes David. An inspired man,
Gad, predicts trouble. There comes a pestilence, which is
just reaching the capital when it is averted by turning a
threshing-floor into the new altar of JERUSALEM. This is the
ninth famous sanctuary, the new central point of the story.
130. A famine comes also: it is averted by appeasing the
Gibeonites for injuries that Saul had done them. David
makes for Yahweh a horrible sacrifice of seven descendants of
Saul: then Yahweh averts the famine.
131. David seeks for any other descendant of Saul, and finds
one named Merib-Baal, a lame lad: he provides him with
ample support, servants, and a place of honour at the royal
table.
(Thus far our analysis follows the translation and sections
given in the present author's Old Test. Theology, vol. ii., pp.
85–277. Henceforward we follow largely the translation of
the R. V.)
132. 2 Sam. X. 1-xi. 1 (vss. 21–24 require rearrangement).
David was friendly toward the Ammonites : That nation re-
quited his kindness with enmity: They leagued with Aram
against David : Joab, David's general, thoroughly overcame
those allies : Aram and its dependencies tried further to at.
tack David, but were utterly beaten.
133. 2 Sam. xi. 2-xii. 7a, 9b, 10–25. David fell into adul-
tery; procured the assassination of his paramour's husband
and then married her: The inspired man judged him and he
did not resent it: The first-born of this marriage died, to
242
APPENDIX I
David's great sorrow: The next born son was Solomon or
Yedidh Yah (Yahweh's Beloved).
134. 2 Sam. xii. 27–31. David and his general and army
warred against the Ammonites and conquered them, and then
treated them with frightful cruelty.
135. 2 Sam. xiii.-xiv. 24 and xiv. 28-xix. 8a. The Absalom
episode : Prince Amnon's rape of Prince Absalom's sister,
and Absalom's murder of Amnon. The general, Joab, got
Absalom reinstated in his father's good-will. Absalom won
large attachment and then made a revolution : David had
to flee; and as he went was mocked by some old followers,
but cheered by others. By reason of conflicting counsels of
his advisers, Absalom was moved to play into the hands of
David's friends and against his own interests; a battle ensued
and Absalom was utterly beaten : He fled, was caught, and
miserably put to death in spite of David's express orders.
The king's grief over Absalom was stayed by Joab's remon-
strance.
136. 2 Sam. xix. 86–39. The king returned to his royal
city at the earnest desire of the people : he generously for-
gave the disloyal and rewarded the loyal among them.
137. 2 Sam. xix. 40-xx. 22. Of the jealousy between the
Israelite part and the Judahite part of the people in their
regard for David: A rebellion grew out of this, led by a
worthless man, Sheba, Bichri's son, a Benjaminite tribes-
man. This rebellion was put down, and Sheba put to death.
138. 1 Kings i, and ii. (omit ii. 2-4). David grew old and
feeble, and one of his sons, Adonijah, tried to take the king-
ship, but was baffled. Solomon was crowned king: the old
king charged the new to put to death certain persons and to
favour certain others : Solomon carried out these instructions,
and the kingdom was established in his hand.
(Here ends what may be counted as the Yahwistic Liter-
ature.)
APPENDIX II
ANALYSIS OF THE ELOHISTIC NARRA-
TIVE1
CIRCA 730 B.C.
1. The Days Before the Yahweh-Character was Revealed.
1. The first paragraphs, now lost, contained probably a
tradition or picture of one of the migrations from the east.
2. One man is supposed to have become the exalted father
(Ab-Ram) of all the Ibhrim (Immigrators). In a vision he is
comforted by the Elohim with the promise that his posterity
shall be as many as the stars of heaven, although they may
be in slavery in a foreign land for three cycles of years. They
shall ultimately chastise the Amorite people of Palestine
for certain sins, and shall dispossess them. Thus does the
writer sum up history in the form of a predictive introduction
to his tale, as he looks back and begins to write down lis con-
ception of how things must have occurred in the long past.
Abram's home is among semi-nomads at a southern sanc-
tuary (toward the Sinaitic deserts); he lies about his hand-
some young wife to save his own life. In a vision, the
Elohim come to help him; and a certain weight of silver paid
to the husband by the innocent offender is counted a satis-
faction for unchastity toward a wife.
3. Abram's wife bears him a son: the Elohim fills both
parents with laughter, so they name their boy Isaac, i.e.,
“ He is to laugh."
4. At the weaning feast another son, by an Egyptian concu-
bine, laughs too joyously to please this young and jealous
For translation and paragraphing followed in this analysis, see as
before the present author's Old Testament Theology, pp. 319 to 451.
243
244
APPENDIX II
mother : The father, by the counsel of the Elohim, turns out
this lad and his mother; and they nearly die of thirst : The
Elohim sends a voice from the sky to guide the mother and
boy to a well : The boy becomes progenitor of the Bedouin
hunting tribes, the Ishmaelites.
5. The sanctuary of Beer-Sheba (Well of Seven) gets its
name from a treaty made there with the aborigines and their
king.
6. Abram believes that the Elohim desire and accept
sacrifices of children slain and burned at a certain altar far
off from Beer-Sheba, perhaps in the Shechem country. But
a vision and voice from the sky at that sanctuary alter his
mind, and he believes that the Elohim can and do change
their desire concerning feasts with men, and will always give
sufficient new directions.
7. Isaac, when grown old, is very fond of certain delicacies :
Excited by them, he gives away his paternal blessings, which
are sometimes, of course, of serious import: His wife Re-
becca unjustly makes a favourite of her second son; she tells
lies at the risk of a curse, and makes him lie to steal the
paternal blessing from the elder son, the progenitor of the
Edomites. Her favourite is Jacob (Dogging Supplanter),
progenitor of Israel. There seem to be woven into the tale,
or used as its motif, some fragments of old folk-lyrics.
8. It is these doings that cause the eternal jealousy and
even hatred between Edom and Israel.
9. Jacob vanders as a nomad, and is pictured as seeing
in a vision of the night how the Elohim send messengers to
and fro between the sky and a certain sanctuary. He erects
a maççebhah or memorial stone there, and anoints it with a
libation of oil; declaring how he has thus discovered a true
House of the Elohim. Here, also, is recorded the faith that
tithes are due at this particular sanctuary.?
10. Jacob is allied in wedlock with the Laban family (“the
whitefolk” or “the folk among the Lebanon-mountain re-
gions "). He is a shepherd slave among them ; but he con-
This sanctuary was no doubt at or near Shechem.
THE ELOHISTIC NARRATIVE
245
trives by cleverness, which he says he owes to the Elohim, to
enrich himself out of his father-in-law's property. The father.
in-law grows vexed : Jacob escapes with his four wives, his
daughter, and eleven sons: one wife steals her father's sacred
images: the father pursues, but in a vision the Elohim work
safety for Jacob: a treaty is drawn up and another maççe-
bhah or sacrificial pillar is erected, and a sacred covenant-
making feast is held.
11. Jacob enters the lands west of Jordan with a sense of
the presence of the Elohim near him at point after point
or sanctuary after sanctuary, guarding him from harm by
Edom, and even showing to the man the very face of “El,”
i.e., deity.
12. The settlement of Jacob and his clan near Shechem is
described : be purchases a stretch of land for a hundred
silver “ Qesitahs”: the new sanctuary on this ground is dedi-
cated to EL-ELOHE-ISRA-EL, i.e., the one deity who is the Elo-
him of Israel. Here is a pointed avoidance of the use of the
name Yahweh where the Elohists must have been hampered
by their theory that the name was not known until the Exodus.
There is an attempt at alliance by wedlock between the
clan Jacob and the Shechemites. The Shechemite clan con-
sent to practice circumcision, as Jacob's people do. Notwith-
standing Jacob's agreement, his sons hate the alliance and
attack the Shechemites most barbarously, killing or robbing
them and enslaving their wives and children. This seems to
be a picturing of Jacob's authorisation by the war-god to hold
the ancient sacred SHECHEM.
13. By inspiration from the Elohim the Jacobite clan leave
the scene of their barbarity, and settle at a sanctuary a little
distance off, which their father had discovered in his youthful
wanderings. They hold certain special purifications, espe-
cially denouncing the Elohim of all other tribes. They be-
come a terror to all those tribes.
14. The story of certain graves of much-loved women of the
tribe; and of a sacred oak and a sacred pillar which stand
beside those graves : also concerning one of the clan named
246
APPENDIX II
Joseph, a young shepherd, who receives oracles in dreams,
and whom his fellow-clansmen dislike for his openness and
for his masterful ideas.
15. When he brings a message to them one day, they
plot to murder him. The eldest brother, Reuben, saves
him and hides him in a well. Some passing Midianite mer-
chants find him and thievishly carry him to Egypt. The dis-
covery of the loss of Joseph fills Reuben with agony: the
brothers tell Jacob falsely that an accident has befallen him :
the aged father laments sorely and long.
16. Joseph is bought by Potiphar, the chief Egyptian
executioner, who is well pleased with him. But this master's
wife is enamoured of him and tempts him. Foiled by his
uprightness, she wickedly slanders him to her husband.
17. Certain servants of Pharaoh, who are imprisoned and
are put under Joseph's charge, get from him correct inter-
pretations of their dreams : Joseph hopes for help from this
circumstance, but hopes vainly for many a day.
18. Pharaoh has a dream: Joseph is brought to interpret
it: he attributes his ability to the Elohim : he interprets
the king's dream, and predicts a time of plentiful crops, to be
followed by a terrible famine.
19. Pharaoh appoints Joseph administrator of agriculture
in view of the coming anxieties : Joseph stores up enormous
quantities of grain.
20. Joseph became allied by wedlock to the Egyptian
priests of On, “The Sun.” He begets thus Manasseh and
Ephraim, which tribes are thus declared by the writer to be
partially of Egyptian blood although the same writer counts
Ephraim the royal tribe of Israel. See below, paragraph 24.
21. Famine reigns everywhere, but Egypt is able to sell
corn to all people through the wisdom of the sultan Joseph.
The Hebrew brothers come also to buy: Joseph knows them,
although unknown to them: he feigns severity, imprisons
one, and sends the others home with hard conditions for re-
turn: he overhears Reuben's troubled mention of their sin
done toward him long ago.
THE ELOHISTIC NARRATIVE
247
22. Reuben manages to meet the sultan's requirements : so
they go again to Egypt: their father Jacob appeals for help
to the deity SHADDAI; while otherwise all, including Joseph,
are made by our writer to speak of Elohim in general: Joseph
discovers himself to his brothers with kindest expressions,
attributing even their cruelty and his own enslavement to the
overruling providence of the Elohim.
23. The monarch Pharaoh hears of all this and is pleased :
He invites the Hebrew men and their father to come and
dwell amid the best that Egypt provides ; Jacob has doubts :
In visions the Elohim reveal to him the wisdom of going;
it will be a step toward national greatness ; and a return is
sure. He goes; and finds great comfort.
24. Jacob on his deathbed prophesies that the supremacy
of the Ephraim tribe is the great purpose of the national
Elohim. See above paragraph 20.
25. The brothers join in seeking forgiveness from Joseph,
and in acknowledging him as master. He lives long and
gloriously : dying he predicts a return to Palestine, and or-
dains that his own body be taken thither for final burial, when
the nation shall return.
26. In a later generation a king of Egypt takes measures to
kill all new-born male Hebrews, by orders given to the two
midwives who suffice for the Hebrew folk, who are, therefore,
not at all numerous: the plan fails; and the king orders the
Egyptians, in whose houses the Hebrews live as slaves, to kill
all the Hebrew male babes.
2. The Revelation of the New Name of God.
27. A certain Levite woman conceals her new-born son for
three months : Then she commits him to the Nile, but in a
water-proof basket : The royal princess, while bathing, finds
the child and saves it: She intrusts it to the babe's sister,
who is watching. When he is grown, the princess takes him
for her son, calling him “ Moses."
28. The lad develops manly strength, a kind heart, patriot-
248
APPENDIX II
ism, and withal a masterful way. Pharaoh hears of one of
his deeds-he had killed an Egyptian_and Moses must flee:
He finds safety in Midian.
29. He marries there a daughter of one Jethro, and serves
him as shepherd: Thus employed, he comes to a sanctuary
at a “ Burning Mountain” (Horeb): There he hears a voice
from the Elohim, and is inspired to undertake the deliverance
of the Hebrew people from their slavery in the homes of the
Egyptians. He is convinced that he is to lead them to this
very sanctuary in HOREB.
As he communes with the Elohim concerning their char-
acter, and wonders what he shall set forth to the Hebrews, 80
as to win their trust, he sees that they must not be guided or
influenced merely by what they have known of the Elohim,
which thus far-thinks our writer-has been quite general:
They must look for future manifestations of particularly divine
character, power, devotion : Egypt shall yet be smitten by
the hand and power of the Elohim, and bow before the He-
brews: the masters will endow with jewels the slaves whom
they set free until like conquerors they are laden with spoil :
The anxious Moses is cheered by the expectation of meeting
his brother : There is a certain staff which Moses seizes, re-
garding it as a peculiarly divine rod with which he will be
sure to work great signs before Pharaoh. Yet the Elohim
will nerve Pharaoh for many days against freeing the people.
The watchword for the future is thus given in this faith.
" The name and character of our god, or 'El,' among the
Elohim is to be “Yalweh,' ¿.e., 'He is to cause to be : ' for he
reveals his will in the Oracle, 'I AM TO BE WHAT I AM TO BE.'"
30. Moses's brother, Aaron, is moved to go to find Moses.
They meet, embrace, and confer.
· 31. The brothers present themselves to Pharaoh. They an-
nounce to him that the Elohim of Israel, who is now named
6. Yahweh" ("He will cause to be"), requires Pharaoh to send
1 This « burning ” is perhaps the beaming of red sunlight from
the granite, or it may be the playing of lightning about this storm
centre. There is certainly nothing volcanic signified.
THE ELOHISTIC NARRATIVE
away the Hebrews. Pharaoh laughs at them, at Yahweh, and
at Israel. He orders the pair to cease disturbing the Hebrews
at their slave-service, and bids them be off to their own slave
duty.
32. Yahweh now declares he will strike terror into Pharaoh.
He sends : The First of the Five Wonders in Egypt.-A
poisonous, blood-like state of the Nile water is attributed to
Moses's waving aloft the divine rod : Pharaoh thinks nothing
of it.
33. The Second Wonder.--At once the deliverer waves the
rod again, and a great and destructive thunder and hail storm
is sent by Yahweh : Pharaoh holds himself together in terror.
34. The Third Wonder. --Immediately again at Yahweh's
inspiration the rod is stretched out and a miraculous locust-
pest comes : Pharaoh's terror, or clutching firmly at his own
heart, is thus caused by Yahweh.
35. The Fourth Wonder. -At another waving of the rod,
darkness fills all Egyptian houses, while strangely, the He-
brew rooms in these houses have light: Yahweh keeps Pha-
raoh still in clutching terror.
36. The Fifth Wonder. —Another terrible scourge is to
come: Moses feels sure by divine inspiration that now the
Pharaoh will yield, also that the Hebrews must take spoil
from the Egyptian people : The king suddenly hastens the
two brothers and all their people out of the land : They spoil
their old masters, who wonder at them and at their leader.
37. A route is chosen by the inspiration of Elohim : the
coast is avoided, because of the Philistines : They march in
fifties to the Sea of Reeds: They carry the coffin containing
the remains of their brother, the late sultan Joseph, as he
had desired.
38. Pharaoh recovers his courage. With a troop of 600 he
chases the few fugitives. Moses is suddenly inspired to great
? cf. Section 25, above. Thus they must have lived near the
tombs of the princes. Indeed the Elohist pictures them as the do-
mestic slaves of the Egyptian families, and as a small body march-
ing " in fifties.”
250
APPENDIX II
bravery. A person, or was it a cloud, or some other visible
thing, a gift of the Elohim, which had been thus far in front
of the caravan, moves away to the rear between them and the
pursuers : The people regain confidence: A great deliver-
ance is wrought: Many of the pursuers are drowned: The
prophetess Miriam leads a band of playing women in a song
over the deliverance.
3. New Teaching by Statutes.
39. Israel now receives a great Statute and a Great Judi-
cial Decision, as it were a Magna Charta : But first the people
are tested, whether they can trust Yahweh to give them meat
and drink: He rains from the heavens something called
“ Man," of which they are to eat for forty years; and they
drink water which pours from the rocks when they are struck
with the wonder-rod.
40. The story of this Statute-giving, after the testing :
Moses goes frequently up into the recesses and clouds of the
Horeb mountain, and communes with the Elohim: He pre-
pares the people by sexual restraints for three days : In
a storm of lightnings and thunderings around the cloud-
wrapped mountain, Moses and the Elohim converse in loud
utterances on the heights : The thunderings are to be inter-
preted as ten commands, as follows:
Prelude. Yahweh of the Elohim is to be counted the saviour of the
Hebrews from Egypt.
i. No other Elohim is to stand before him to obscure his face.
ii. No carvings of deities are to be worshipped : Yahweh is the
EVER JEALOUS DEITY.
iii. The character-name YAHWEH is to be sacred.
iv. The day of CUTTING-OFF (Sabbath) is to be devoted to Yah-
weh worship.
v. Parents are to be honoured.
vi. Murder is forbidden.
vii. Theft is forbidden.
viii. Adultery is forbidden.
ix. Lying is forbidden.
X. Covetousness is forbidden.
THE ELOHISTIC NARRATIVE
251
The dreadfulness of the scene is regarded as the final
“ Testing” of the people.
41. Moses, his attendant Joshua (another wonder-person),
and certain elders retire into the mountain : After a long
stay they are about to return, bringing stone tablets en-
graved with the Decalogue and additional commands, which
are regarded as carved by the Elohim.
42. The people grow weary of the absence of their leaders :
Aaron makes a golden casting shaped like a little bull, as a
symbol of the deity, Yahweh : They hold a Yahweh festival
around this image.
43. The leaders returning discover all this: In anger Moses
dashes the tablets to pieces : He smashes the idol and roundly
reproves his brother : He retires again and prays tenderly for
his wayward charge: He feels convinced that now, not Yah-
weh himself, but only his messenger will accompany the
march and be present with the people.'
44. The people, in trouble at this thought, give again of
their gold and valuables, as they gave to make the bull. Moses
makes with these a better shrine for Yahweh, but plants it
outside the camp, yet near it. Thither are to go all who
would commune with Yahweh. Moses acts as priest at this
shrine, aided by his young ministrant Joshua.
45. The priest and leader Moses brings to the people, as
it were in lieu of the broken tablets, first a new set of ten
commands, which are much the same as those which the
Yahwistic school held to be the original ones, viz.:
i. Silver and golden images of the Elohim are forbidden.
ü. Earthen altars or altars of undressed stone are to be made at
all places where Yahweh vouchsafes a theophany.
üi. In every seventh year all land is to lie fallow.
1 This gives us in reality a beautiful record of the rise of the
faith expressed in the sentence Immanu-El. (s. With us there is
a deity.”) Isaiah's declaration of this faith was made about the
time when the Elohistic story was being composed.
252
APPENDIX II
iv. Every seventh day is to be a day sacred to " Cutting-off" 1
(Sabbath), but used in Yahweh's worship.
V. There are to be three Yahweh festivals in the year:
1. The Festival of Unleavened Bread (The End of the
Old Year's corn supplies).
2. The Festival of First-fruits of grain harvest.
3. The Festival of Vintage-end.
vi. The fully blest man is to be readily generous.
vii. Every first-born son belongs to Yahweh: so too every first-
born animal.
viii. Flesh of torn animals is never to be eaten as devoted to
Yahweh.
ix. Sacrificial flesh is to be eaten promptly while fresh.
1. No kid is to be sacrificed in the womb of its dam.
All these are prescriptions whereby Yahweh may be duly
and truly worshipped. Then, secondly, there are five prom-
ises of reward for devotion to Yahweh :
i. Yahweh will be their ally in war.
ii. Yahweh will give them food and drink,
ii. There shall be no barrenness.
ir. Yahweh will send wasps to drive out the Amorite aborigines
from Canaan.
v. The Israelite boundaries are to reach from the Sea of Reeds by
the Philistine coast line to the Euphrates.
46. The people accept all these prescriptions and promises.
They are ratified as a National Covenant at a great sacrificial
festival, whereat the blood of the victims is sprinkled partly on
the altar or slaying-place, as if on Yahweh himself, and partly
on the people : The blood is the binding symbol of a com-
mon life pervading the people and their deity.
47. Moses's father-in-law, Jethro, brings his daughter, Zip-
porah, Moses's wife, and their sons, Eliezer and Gershom, to
join the leader. Another sacrificial feast of brotherhood is
held.
This was probably the formerly worshipped female deity of Fate.
2 All this could have value only as it concerned and implied an
agricultural people already settled in Canaan.
THE ELOHISTIC NARRATIVE
253
hundreds, and thousands,' is attributed to a suggestion of
Jethro at this date, approved by an inspiration from Yah-
weh.
49. Of the singular ways of the spirit of inspiration : How
Joshua fails to understand this : Miriam and Aaron fail in
this also : How special personal intimacy with Yahweh is
held to be Moses's exclusive privilege."
50. The tribe of Amalek attack Israel: A wonder is worked
by another use of the divine rod, and Amalek is beaten. To
this occasion is attributed an old record to the intent that
Yahweh means to destroy this tribe of Amalek utterly.
An altar is erected and a feast is held at the place of the
wonder.
51. How fever breaks out and is counted as a mark of Yah-
52. How some Reubenites mutiny. A wondrous earth-
quake or landslip is wrought, and the mutineers sink in the
chasm of the earth.
53. Arrived at a great sanctuary at Kadesh in the south of
Palestine, where Miriam dies and is buried, the leader sends
scouts into the promised land: These find a land rich in fruits,
and they bring some back; but they report it to be possessed
by Amalekites, Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, and Canaanites;
and also by Nephilim (fallen spirits) or giants : The people
complain : Moses feels moved to march back toward the Sea
of Reeds : The people now complain still more : They march
against the aborigines without Moses and his sacred casket of
divine records, and are repulsed heavily.
54. Moses resolves to try the road due east from the great
sanctuary through the Edomite land. The people sue for
leave; but they are sternly refused : They march back to the
south.
2 See the story of the reign of Jehosbapbat.
? This is one of the theologumena of the theologising Elohistic
school. It is probably an effort to understand the fact and impor.
tance of the existence of “prophets."
254
APPENDIX II
55. The caravan is attacked by swarms of poisonous ser-
pents. Moses fashions an image of a serpent, and lifts it
high with his divine rod: the wounded who see it are healed.
56. The Itinerary: From Qadhesh (the great sanctuary)
they march through the steppe of Paran and Tophet to
Laban (hardly “ Lebanon ”), to the villages : to the gold re-
gion: to the wells of the Ya'akanim: to Moserah, the burial
place of Aaron, who is succeeded in his office beside Moses by
Eleazar, his son: to Gudhgodhah : to Yatebhath : to Zared :
to Arnon. An old verse of poetry is quoted touching Arnon.
The caravan ask leave of the Amorite king, Sihon, to cross
his territory: They are refused, and then attacked, but Israel
meets Sihon, and is victorious: They sing over this : Another
old song is quoted which tells of the Amorite loss and of the
dangers that threaten the Moabite worshippers of Chemosh.
The story of Balaam from Syria on the banks of the
Euphrates : He is a Yahweh-worshipper, or at least he re-
spects Yahweh : He is summoned by the sheik of Moab, Ba-
lak, to interfere on his behalf against the Israelite caravan who
are so near his border : Balaam is warned by inspiration not
to go to help Balak: Balak tempts him hard : Inspiration
comes again, deciding him to go, but to go and speak as Yah-
weh would wish : After many sacrificial feasts, Balaam chants
his oracle, but it is in praise and defence of Israel : Balak's
earnest endeavours to alter this oracle procure only one that
is more thoroughly in favour of Israel.
57. Israel falls into Venus-worship, which is put down by a
bloody conflict.
58. The Gadites and the Reubenites settle east of the Jor-
dan.
59. How Moses and the elders assemble the people in the
plains of Moab and address them: The people are reminded
that at Horeb they begged that no more divine commands be
given in thunders from the heavens, as the Decalogue had been
given : Yahweh had agreed to this and promised that hence-
forth all commands should be given through a human media-
tor's lips.
THE ELOHISTIC NARRATIVE
255
4. The Original Deuteronomic Law.
60. Now are given the supplementary commands as fol-
lows:
The Judicial Decisions given in Moab.?
Concerning slaves :
1. A Hebrew may hold a Hebrew man as slave, but only for
six years. The slave's wife and children are not to go out from
the slavery if the wife was given to the slave by the master. The
slave may remain too, if he prefer to do so.
2. A Hebrew slave-woman is not to be emancipated unless the
master fail in due regard for her, as e.g., if he have had her as
wife and then wish to be rid of her, in which case she is to go free.
Concerning homicide :
1. He who slays is to be slain ; but if the Elohim occasioned the
death by an accident, then every altar is a safe sanctuary and protec-
tion for the slayer.
2. The parricide shall die.
3. Injury in strife, even if it be not fatal, shall be made good.
4. If quarrelling men injure a pregnant woman, causing prema-
ture delivery, the husband shall receive compensation according
to adjudication.
5. The lex talionis, an eye for an eye, etc.
6. The slaying of a slave shall be avenged; but not if the slave
live on for a few days.
7. He who injures his slave seriously shall liberate him.
"This work or lawbook stood originally where Deuteronomy
stands now, i.e., just before the story of the death of Moses. To
make room for the present Deuteronomy, i.e., the later version
written to urge a centralisation of worship, the original version of
supplementary regulations has been taken out, and has been in-
serted for safe-keeping, immediately after the story of the utter-
ance of the Decalogue at Horeb. It forms much of Exodus chaps.
xxi., xxii., xxiii. A few critical changes are made where the text
had likely become disordered.
2 Cf. Bacon's Triple Tradition of the Exodus, 1894, and Baentsch,
Das Bundesbuch, 1892.
256
APPENDIX II
Injuries done to men by beasts :
1. A goring ox that kills a man or woman is to be killed : Hig
flesh is not to be eaten: Then the owner is to be free.
2. If the owner knew the beast's disposition and was negligent,
then both owner and ox shall die.
3. The injured relatives may accept redemption by money and
let the owner of the ox live.
4. The redemption, for a slain son or a slain daughter, shall be
settled by adjudication.
5. For a slain slave the redemption money shall be thirty silver
shekels.
Injuries to cattle :
1. He whose pit causes a beast's death shall pay the value of a
living beast and shall receive the dead one.
2. If a man's ox slay a neighbour's ox, each owner shall get half
of each, or half of the value of both the living and the dead oxen.
3. If the ox was known to be mischievous and the master was
negligent, that negligent owner shall receive the dead ox, while the
other owner gets the live one.
Concerning theft:
1. He who steals a man, and sells or keeps him, shall die.
2. Theft of large cattle is to be paid back fivefold, and of small
cattle fourfold.
3. The penniless thief is to be sold into slavery.
4. The thief caught in the possession of stolen cattle is to make
good the injury.
5. If he be killed while being so caught, his death is not to be
avenged.
6. Except that if this killing be after sunrise, then blood is to be
shed for him.
Concerning arson, etc. :
1. He who ruins good fields by letting his cattle trespass shall
make good the damage out of his own best possessions.
2. He who causes sheaves or standing corn and the like to be
destroyed by fire, shall make it all good.
Concerning trusts :
1. The stealer of goods deposited on trust is to make good double
i
THE ELOHISTIC NARRATIVE
257
what he robbed. If the actual thief be not found, the trustee is to
lay the case before Elohim for adjudication.
2. In all cases of intrusted and lost cattle, he whom the Elohim
adjudicated to be to blame is to repay the injury twofold.
3. If cattle so intrusted be injured or lost, and the Elohim ' adju-
dicate the trustee to be blameless, he shall be free.
4. If the beast has been stolen from beside the trustee, the trus-
tee shall make it good.
5. If it has evidently only been torn of wild beasts, he shall
not make it good.
6. What is borrowed and then is injured, or dies in the borrow-
er's hands, is to be made good by the borrower.
7. If the owner was present during the injury, the borrower shall
not make it good.
8. If it was hired, then the hire paid is enough.
Concerning seductions :
1. He who seduces a maid, not betrothed, shall marry her.
2. If her father refuse, then the seducer shall atone by paying a
maid's full dower.
Concerning proprieties :
1. Any woman working incantations shall die.
2. Any devotee copulating with a beast shall die.
3. He who mocks his parent is to die.
4. He who worships any Elohim save Yahweh only is to die.
Concerning neighbourliness :
1. Oppress not any (Gēr) sojourner among you.
2. Do not add humiliation to the widow or the orphan.
3. Do not take interest from any fellow Hebrew for lent money.
4. Return before sundown any garment taken as a pledge from a
neighbour.
These references to the mind of the Elohim seem to suggest
reference to oracles obtained by divining with an ephod or by lot.
Nor is this unlike the very practice of David, as we have it de-
scribed. The writer of the story of David and the people of that
writer's times trusted to such oracles.
2 This rule seems to prove that itself, and probably others in this
collection, were really laws codified or honoured long before the
writing of this document and collected into this set in order to work
out the theory of a Moab-legislation.
258
APPENDIX II
Concerning reverence :
1. Never make light of any Elohim.
2. Never curse any exalted personage of the nation.
Concerning uprightness in courts of justice :
1. Accept not a worthless report.
2. Be not a violent co-witness with a godless man.
3. Follow not the multitude into evil.
4. Follow not the multitude to turn justice aside.
5. Do not favour a great man, or even a poor man, with partiality.
6. Deliver your enemy fron danger.
7. Help your enemy when he is overburdened.
8. Do not injure your enemy's suit at law.
9. Render only true evidence; that the righteous man may live,
and the godless perish.
10. Never take a bribe.
61. Solemn conclusion, with added curse upon Amalek :
followed by direction to gather on Mount Ebal, i.e., at
Shechem, for a national confirmation of these regulations
by erecting there a special altar which shall bear a record of
these laws written upon its sides.
62. Moses, by divine inspiration, commissions and encour-
ages Joshua to be his successor.
63. How Moses died in Moab, a man more intimately in...
spired of Yahweh than any other ever was.
(Here ends the Story of the Exodus.)
5. The Story of the Settlement in Canaan.
64. By divine inspiration Joshua arranges for an invasion
of the West-Jordan land : he sends spies ahead.
65. These spies turn in to a harlot in Jericho: She hides
them and deceives the police concerning them: They escape
and go cautiously back to Joshua.
66. By inspiration Joshua arranges a wonder: The Jor-
dan is swollen, but the priests bearing the chest containing
the divine covenant step into the swollen river's edge, and at
THE ELOHISTIC NARRATIVE
259
LID
once the waters cease to flow, and are piled up in a heap:
The people cross on the dry bed safely: Twelve chosen men
take twelve stones from the river's bed and plant them on
the west bank: The heap is called a Gilgal: The priests
now march across and then the river rolls on again as it was
wont.
67. The elder of two records (E) of the Fall of Jericho :
at the signal of a trumpet blast all Israel give a great shout:
The city walls fall : The Israelites walk in and capture
everything.
The younger of the two records (En). Seven priests blow
seven trumpets for seven consecutive days before the covenant
casket: on the last of these days, the priests and two bodies
of soldiers march round the city seven times: Then the
priests blow and the people shout: They burn the city, sav-
ing only the harlot named above, and her relatives:
68. The siege of Ai: At first it is a disastrous failure.
69. By inspiration Joshua understands that a selfish He-
brew's stealing has made Yahweh angry, and so he has ceased
to help. The leader has lots cast, to discover the culprit :
One Achan is pitched upon, and he says that at Jericho ho
had appropriated goods which ought to have been burnt:
The man and those goods are burned to pacify Yahweh.
70. By stratagem and by a wonder, the town of Ai is taken;
All its men and women are butchered.
71. The people of the neighbouring town of Gibeon play &
trick and get favor from Joshua and the Hebrews: At the dis-
covery of the trick Joshua just saves the deceivers from death
at the hands of the angry Hebrews by binding them to perpet-
ual slave service for the sanctuary of Yahweh.
72. The kings of Jerusalem and Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish,
and Eglon, attack Gibeon : Joshua comes to tho rescue : A
wonder of hail from Yahweh works the complete destruction of
the forces of the allied enemies: Joshua cruelly butchers the
five kings.
73. Jabin, king of Hazor, and three other kings, unite to
attack the Hebrews, but they are defeated.
260
APPENDIX II
74. By inspiration Joshua marks out the land in parcels
with definite boundaries for the various tribes.
75. Joshua's final charge, given in Shechem to the people,
their chiefs, officers, and judges. This shows what probably
stood at the beginning of the whole document; viz., a state-
ment of the faith that their ancestors once lived beyond the
great river (Euphrates) and there served other Elohim besides
Yahweh. Then the speech recounts the migration of the
father of the Hebrew group of peoples westward to Canaan :
Some of them settled later in Seir (Edom), while the tribe of
Jacob went to Egypt. It tells, then, of Moses leading these
away back by the Reedy Sea and the steppes to the east of Jor-
dan, the Amorito land; further, how the Moabites annoyed
them with help of Balaam, the prophet, who blessed them
after all; then how Joshua, as successor of the deliverer, led
them to invade West Palestine : Finally this leader, now grow-
ing aged, invites them to forsake entirely their faith in the
Elohim they had in Euphrates-land and in Egypt, and to ac-
copt Yahweh, as he, Joshua, and his house are doing. The
people pledge themselves to be slaves to Yahweh as their
Elohim ; they declare their faith that he it is, out of all the
Elohim, who has done all the saving work for them. Joshua
declares that Yahweh is El-Qanna, viz., he is that particu-
lar individual of the Elohim whom they know as the deity of
jealousy; they must beware of rousing him: They repeat
their profession of faith.
76. Joshua draws up an agreement and a statute, erecting a
stone memorial of this at the great sanctuary in Shechem,
under a sacred tree. All pledge themselves to observe these
provisions and then they repair to their homes. The leader
dies, aged one hundred and ten years, and is buried in his
own land.
77. The coffin containing the dust of Joseph is finally bur-
ied near this great sanctuary at Shechem. Eleazar, the son
of Aaron, dies also and is buried in a neighbouring part of the
Ephraimite mountain range.
THE ELOHISTIC NARRATIVE
261
6. The Elohistic Stories of Heroes, or Judges.
78. After these things Midianites oppress Israel. A
prophet preaches that neglect of Yahweh is the explanation
of this act of his providence.
79. An inspired man called Gideon hews down by night
the altar of Baal-worship and the Asherah, or sacred tree,
and builds a Yahweh-altar : His fellow tribesmen gather to
kill him ; but being defended eloquently by his father Joash,
Gideon becomes honoured : Then he leads a small armed
band against the Midianite forces, and guided by inspiration,
he pursues the Midianite princes, who have murdered his
brothers : He bids his own first-born kill them, but the lad
is timid, so Gideon himself does it : He punishes severely
two Israelite cities that had refused to help him.
80. Gideon refuses to become founder of an hereditary
dynasty, saying, “Yahweh is to be king for us :” But he
accepts a large payment in gold; and this he makes into an
ephod, or robe for religious functions in his own city.
81. Gideon's son, Abimelech, gets himself elected king and
slays all his brothers as a sacrifice, except one lad who es-
capes.
82. This lad, Jotham, is skilful in song and parable: He
publishes a keen satire, against his brother Abimelech and
his partisans, the Baals of Shechem.
83. After Abimelech has reigned three years, these Baals
mutiny ; but the king overcomes them, and puts them to a
horrible death : He falls in a dishonoured way at a siege :
This is regarded by the writer as a token of the vengeance
of the Elohim.
84. The people worship many Elohim, Baals, Asherahs,
etc., that are the deities of surrounding peoples : Then they
are oppressed by the Ammonites : In their distress they
hearken to a Yahweh-oracle, and return to his worship.
85. One Jephthah, a bastard and an outcast, head of cer-
tain banditti, is besought to help the Israelites of Gilead
amid their sufferings under the Ammonites; He accepts the
262
APPENDIX II
task of commander: He vows to make an ascending offering
to Yahweh of whatever shall first meet him on a successful
return from his campaign : He marches out and thoroughly
subdues Ammon.
86. On his return, his own daughter is the first to meet
him: In great anguish to both father and daughter, the vow
is fulfilled.'
87. Unfortunately, the tribe of Ephraim are jealous of
Jephthah's single-handed success : They attack him, but are
severely defeated : He holds his office for six years; then he
dies.
88. A certain Ephraimite, by name Micah, a Yahweh-
worshipper, has a sanctuary, an ephod and teraphs, with his
son for priest. But a man from Bethlehem in Judah, who
seems to have been a Levite, comes along and becomes his
senior priest at a fixed salary.
89. The tribe of Dan explores in the north seeking larger
territory : Micah's priest gives them a cheering Yahweh-
oracle : They covet the land of Laish in the Lebanon region :
They invite the priest of Micah to go with them as their
priest: He steals his employer's sacred utensils and goes :
His new companions drive off the pursuing Micah with vio-
lence : They push on northward and seize the coveted terri-
tory, killing all the inhabitants : They settle in Laish them-
selves, calling their city Dan: The stolen sacred things
become the furniture of the sanctuary in Laish 2 for gener.
ations.
7. The Elohistic Story of the Founding of the Kingdom at
Mizpah.
90. A man of the Ramahs (High places) who worships
yearly at Shiloh, where Eli's sons officiate as priests, has two
This is only one of many cases of sacrifice of human life to
Yahweh. The principle of the Levitical priesthood rests upon it.
Jeremiah in 600 B.C. deals with the practice.
2 This seems from its name to have been really a lion-god's sanc-
tuary. Cf. W. R. Smith, Rel. Sem., p. 156.
3 According to the Yahwistic story it was founded at Gilgal.
THE ELOHISTIC NARRATIVE
263
S
wives : The favourite one, Hannah, is childless : At the sanc-
tuary Eli notices her praying-she is pleading with Yahweh
for a son, and vowing to make him a Nazir (vow-man) for all his
life : Eli thinks at first that she is intoxicated, and reproves
her: Learning the facts, he predicts the fulfilment of her
prayer.
91. Hannah bears Samuel: When he can be brought to
Eli and left beside him, she gives him as a devotee to the
sanctuary, where he acts as a priest: He is another of the
Elohist's Wonder-Children.
92. Eli's sons are bringing all sacrifices to Yahweh into
discredit: They will not wait for their perquisite food till the
sacrificial flesh is boiled 1 but insist with violence on having
the raw flesh to roast for themselves.
93. Hannah provides lovingly for her priestly son, and she
bears five more children.
94. While Eli's sons wax worse, to their father's anxiety,
and in spite of his reproving them,
95. Samuel begins to receive Yahweh-oracles, under Eli’-
guidance: He receives them while in his bed in the sanctus
ary, beside the Elohim-casket : Eli bows devoutly before the
fate announced for his family.
96. All Israel come to know that Samuel is an inspired man.
97. The Philistines oppress Israel, battling against them
successfully: The Israelites send to Shiloh for the Yahweh-
casket, and carry it out to the battle-field : This excites them
to great hopes; but it nerves the Philistines, too : They put
great faith in their own Elohim, and are again victorious :
They capture the casket of the Elohim: Eli's two sons are
slain.
98. When the news of this is brought to Eli, it is too bit-
ter for him : He falls, and comes to his death: Phineas's wife
dies under the shock, in child-labour, giving birth to a son
whom she names as she departs Ichabod (" Where is glory?").
This is one proof among many that down to these days at least,
the proper way to cook sacrificial flesh-food was not to roast it, but
to boil it.
1
264
APPENDIX II
99. Here follows a finely-conceived picture of conflict as in
the darkness of night between the two Elohim, Dagon, fish
or grain god, and Yahweh. Yahweh is pictured as mutilating
the wooden image of Dagon. The conflict is declared to be
the origin of certain features in the customary worship of
Dagon, which confirms the opinion that the scene is a poetical
representation of a hoary tradition.
100. After a stay of seven months in the cities of the Philis-
tines, the casket of Yahweh is sent back to the land of the Is-
raelites : It is brought to the “ House of the Sun," with many
superstitious observances : The casket is received by the
Israelites with similar superstitions : Yahweh is described as
having a singularly jealous and vindictive character.
101. Another scene of confession of unfaithfulness to Yah-
weh is described : And now the tribe dedicate themselves to
him as their sole Elohim.
102. How the Philistines invade Israelite lands again ; and
how Samuel cries to Yahweh, who replies by a thunder-
storm: complete rout of the enemy is thus caused: So Sam-
uel erects a maçcebah and calls it “ The Help-stone” (Eben-
ezer): The Israelites gain back many towns that the Phil-
istines have seized.
103. How Samuel waxes old as judge and sacrificer, mak-
ing regular official tours, and erecting places of sacrifice. But
his sons, who assist and succeed him, do not maintain his
high reputation for ability and integrity.
104. The people grow discontented with the system.
Samuel is troubled, but soon feels divinely cheered to lead
them forward to the choice of a king.
105. The election of King Saul at Mizpah : Samuel utters
a solemn adjuration to king and folk as he himself retires
from office : The speech resembles those of Moses and Joshua
on similar farewell occasions : Yahweh supports Samuel's
utterance by sending another great thunder-storm.
106. Samuel charges Saul in Yahweh's name to take ven-
geance on the Amalekites : Saul makes a horrible slaughter
of these people, first separating the Kenites from them: He
THE ELOHISTIC NARRATIVE
265
and his followers save the Amalekite king, Agag, and certain
valuable cattle : Samuel is moved with the Yahweh spirit :
sorrowfully, yet sternly, he pronounces a sentence of divine
deposition of King Saul and his house: The king pleads
that he meant to make religious feasts for Yahweh with the
cattle: Samuel utters the stern new doctrine that the exclu-
sive devotion to be aimed at is not best expressed by relig-
ious feasts : The old man demands submission to Yahweh
without questioning, which indeed means submission to the
seer (the “Nabi") who is supposed to speak for the deity of
Israel. This new doctrine is uttered as a counterpart to the
supposed jealousy of Israel's deity toward all other Elohim.
107. The fierce old seer is a long time deaf to Saul's
pathetic pleading.
108. The prophet himself hews the captive Amalekite
prince to bits in a horrible way.
109. Samuel forsakes Saul finally.
110. A new attack by the Philistines. Their champion
Goliath, a huge fellow with amazing weapons, defies the
Israelites, and dares any of them to single combat with him :
A shepherd lad called “Beloved One” (David) takes a mes-
sage from home to his elder brothers, who are in the Israelite
army: The boy is excited by the sight and sound of the big
Philistine: In spite of the displeasure of his eldest brother,
he is taken to the king and volunteers to attack this big
fellow: having fought wild creatures in the pasture-lands,
he has great trust in Yahweh's sure help: So David goes,
hurls a sling-stone at the big man, and kills him : The Is-
raelites now take courage, while the Philistines fear and fly:
There is a great victory for the Israelites. David is another
of the Elohistic series of wonder-children. They are : Joseph,
Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David. Each had a marvellous
childhood, grew up as a leader, and finished with a solemn
oracular utterance to the nation.
Saul makes full inquiry about the boy and finds him to be
the son of Jesse of Bethlehem : The king's son Jonathan
becomes greatly attached to the lad.
266
APPENDIX II
111. The king grows afraid and jealous of this youth, for he
seems indeed to be divinely favoured, as well as a favourite of
the people : The king's daughter, Merab, is betrothed to the
young man, but is given to another : Jonathan pleads power-
fully in behalf of David that Saul may look more favourably
and gratefully upon him: The king listens to this pleading.
There is again a Philistine war, and David wins more
distinction, which rouses an evil spirit in the king : The king
falls upon David murderously : David escapes to his house :
The house is surrounded by a band of assassins, employed by
the king : David's wife accomplishes his escape by stratagem.
112. Escaping, David comes with a band of followers, to a
sanctuary at Nob: By pretending to be on royal service, he
obtains food and weapons :
113. The outcome is that Saul, in anger, kills all the priests
and people of that sanctuary.
114. Saul, with a troop of a few thousand soldiers, pursues
David in the southern steppes : At one time the fugitive en-
ters the king's camp in the night, when all in it are asleep :
He is sorely tempted to kill Saul: He resists in faith that
Yahweh manages all things duly; but he carries off the king's
spear and his water-bottle: He retires to a safe point, and
shouting, arouses the camp of the king : The royal guard and
the king himself are filled with shame at their carelessness
and at David's magnanimity: The pursuit ceases.
115. A young Amalekite reports to David how Saul has
fared badly in battle, and that he, the young man himself, has
put Saul to death : David executes the murderer at once.
116. David consults with a Nabi (inspired one) as to the
erection of a house to contain the Yahweh-casket: The Nabi,
by name Nathan, feels moved of the divine spirit to discourage
this :' David utters an oracular prayer, giving thanks for the
divine favour to his dynasty, and professing himself Yahweh's
devoted slave.
"Of course this is just what we might expect from the Elohist
who wished Shechem to be the great sanctuary and could not favour
the erection of a new royal altar and temple in Jerusalem.
THE ELOHISTIC NARRATIVE
267
(Here ends abruptly what is extant of the Elohistic Docu-
ment. Possibly the loss of the original continuation was due
to its favouring Shechem, and condemning the erection of a
royal altar in Jerusalem. The devotees of Zion, after 622 B.O.
would not like such a record.)
APPENDIX III
THE OUTLINES OF THE ORIGINAL “D”
DOCUMENTS 1
A. The “ Judge” or Hosea-like “D” Document.
1. The Hortatory Prelude.
Preface or Introduction. iv. 45b-xi.
Title and place of proclamation. iv. 44, 46-49.
placen nochamarosan ajatu
The Elohistic Decalogue. v. 2b, 6-18 (Heb.).
The basis of the new directions. vi. la, 2-9.
Beware of wandering. vi. 10–13, 15.
The children to be told of grace and duty. vi. 20–25.
The children to be sheltered from wrong environment. vii.
1-4, 6, 9.
The promise of blessing, plenty and power. vii. 12b-24.
The promise of a joyful land. viii. 7-10.
Reminiscences of the past joyless journey. viii. 11a, 12–18.
Fear not the great aborigines. ix. 1-4a, 5-7b.
The sum of these exhortations is : One Yahweh is thy only
true God, and has blessed thee. Therefore teach and be
faithful and full of courage. Hereafter only fragments are
interwoven with the other work which addresses the people
as " you,” and speaks of “The Elders”; whereas the former
work says “thou,” and speaks of “The Judges.”
The sum of the further commands is : Love God and the
1 The Deuteronomists' work is based upon E and is really only a
new edition of that part of the same, which, as we have seen in
Appendix II, paragraph 60, is now found in Exod. xxi. to xxiii.;
but which stood originally where Deuteronomy stands now.
268
269
poor who are his special care. X. 12–15, 20–22. xi. 1, 10-12,
14b, 15, 19, 20.
The place of sacred establishment is to be Shechem. xi.
29f.
II. Outline of the Directions of the “ Judge" Document.
We shall give this in outline and then in its full text.
1. Directing centralisation. xii. 13, 17a, 18-20a, 21, 26f.
2. Directing tithes. xiv. 22–29 (mostly).
3. Also firstlings. XV. 19f.
4. A Paschal festival at the beginning of harvest. xvi. 1f,
4b-7.
5. A feast of " Weeks” at the end of corn-harvest. xvi. 9–12.
6. A dance-festival with booths at the end of vintage. xvi.
13–15, 17.
7. Prescribing officers, judges, and writers. xvi. 18–20a.
8. The duties of judges. xvii. 8–10.
10. Of sanctuary for accused persons. xix. 2-10.
11. The witnesses in trials. xix. 15–21a.
12. Of a special case for trial. xiii. 2-4a, 6-18.
13. Of the conduct of a siege. xx. 10–17, 19f.
14. Of kindness to animals : The stray cattle; the stum-
bling beast; a bird's nest. xxii. 1-4, 6-8.
15. Of kindness to slaves, debtors and the like. E.9., Of
the fugitive slave; payment of interest; petty theft; neces-
saries of life; pledges, how to be taken and when to be re-
turned; a hireling; personal responsibility ; justice to the
weak; gleanings, etc. ; upright judgment; the ox on the
threshing-floor. xxiii. 16f, 20, 25f. xxiv. 6, 10–22. XXV. 1-4.
16. The year of remission. xv. 1-3, 7-11.
17. The freeing of slaves. xv. 12–15, 18.
18. Liturgical Appendix. A triennial tithe. xxvi. 1f, 5–15.
This is the main body of rules, and embodies the principle
of centralisation and its corollaries; therefore, it is a classic
source for knowledge of the religion of this Deuteronomist.
For this reason we give it in full.
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APPENDIX III
The judgemont Orangular
III. The Test of the “ Judge” Document,
This is well characterised by Steuernagel as speaking of
"the Judges,” but never of "the Elders”; as speaking often
in short, almost oracular sentences; as directly addressing
the reader by the singular “thou”; as using generally the
word “brother” (1x) instead of “neighbour" (yn). Its laws
concern worship, and justice, in and around the new central
Sanctuary. It is based on an elder centralisation oracle.
1. Concerning centralisation of sacrificial worship. xii.
13f, 17a, 18–20a, 21, 26f.
Have a guard to thyself, lest thou send up ascending offer-
ings in any place that thou mayest see, but rather in the place
that Yahweh is going to choose in one of thy tribes. And it
is there that thou art to do all that for which I am thy director.
Thou art not to be free to eat within thy gates thy corn-
tithe, and wine-tithe, and oil-tithe, and thy herd's and flock's
firstlings. But rather is it before Yahweh thy god that thou
art to eat it, in the place which Yahweh thy god is going to
make choice of: thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and
thy slave, and thy nursemaid, and the Levite, who is within
thy gates. And thou shalt have joy before Yahweh thy god
in all that thy hand gives out. Have a guard to thyself lest
thou forsake the Levite all thy days upon the soil.
Since Yahweh thy god may make broad thy border, ac-
cording to what he hath talked of to thee; and if thou shalt
say, “Do let me eat flesh,” since thy soul will always desire
to eat flesh; and if the place be far from thee that Yahweh
thy god may choose for setting his name there: then thou
shalt slaughter (religiously as a sacred feast) some of thy
herd and of thy flock that Yahweh has given to thee, just as
I have directed thee. Except that it is thy devoted things
which thou mayest have and thy vows, that thou art to take
up, and come away with unto the place that Yahweh is going
to choose.
And thou art to make thine ascending offerings, the flesh
and the blood, upon the sacred slaughtering place of Yahweh
THE ORIGINAL “D” DOCUMENTS
271
thy god; and as for thy sacrificial blood, that is to be poured
out upon the sacred slaughtering place of Yahweh thy god,
but it is the flesh that thou art to eat.
2. Concerning tithes. xiv. 22–29, with omission of editorial
additions.
With a tithing thou art surely to keep tithing all thy sow-
ing's income, that which goes out to the field year by year.
And thou shalt eat before Yahweh thy god in the place
that he is going to choose for the constant abiding of his
name there, thy corn-tithe, thy wine-tithe and thy oil-tithe to
the end that thou mayest learn to reverence Yahweh thy god
all thy days.
And when the way shall be too far from thee, so that thou
shalt not be free to take it, because the place is going to be
far from thee which Yahweh thy god is going to choose for
setting his name there, for Yahweh thy god is going to bless
thee; then thou shalt put it in silver value, and shalt bind
the silver in thy hand, and thou shalt go unto the place of
which Yahweh thy god is going to make choice. And thou
shalt put out the silver in all that thy heart may greatly wish,
in the herd and in the flock, and in wine, and in spirits, and in
all that thy heart may seek. And thou shalt eat there before
Yahweh thy god and shalt rejoice, thou and thy house. And
as for the Levite, who is in thy gates, thou art not to forsake
him.
After the end of three years, thou art to bring out all the
tithe of thy income in that year; and thou art to set it down
within thy gates. And the Levite who is with thee shall come,
and the sojourner and the orphan and the widow who are
within thy gate; and they are to eat and to be satisfied, to the
end that Yahweh thy god may bless thee in all thy handiwork
that thou art going to do.
3. Of firstlings. XV. 19f.
All the first-born that may be born in thy herd and in thy
flock, that is, the male kind, thou art to devote for Yahweh
thy god. Thou art not to do any slave-toil with the first-born
of thy ox-kind; and thou art not to shear the first-born of thy
272
APPENDIX III
flock. Before Yahweh thy god thou art to eat it, year by
year, in the place that Yahweh is going to choose, thou and
thy house.
4. Of a Paschal festival. xvi. 1f, 46–12.
Guard the month of the green ears of the crops (the Abib)
and make a Paschah for Yahweh thy god. For it was in the
month of the Abib that Yahweh thy god brought thee out
from Egypt by night. And thou shalt slaughter sacrificially
a Paschah for Yahweh thy god, of flock and herd, in the place
that Yahweh is going to choose for the constant abiding of his
name there.
And there shall not remain until the morning any of the
flesh that thou art to slaughter in the evening in the first day.
Thou art not to be free to slaughter sacrificially the Paschah
in one of thy gates, which Yahweh thy god is giving to thee;
but away in the place that Yahweh thy god, is going to choose
for the abiding of his name. It is there thou art to sacrifice
sacrificially the Paschah in the evening, according to the set-
ting of the sun, that is the trysted time of thy going out from
Egypt. And thou shalt thoroughly boil and then eat, in the
place whereof Yahweh thy god is going to make choice. And
thou shalt turn in the morning and go to thy tent.
5. Of a feast of weeks at the end of corn-harvest. xvi. 9–12.
It is a seven of sevens (i.e., weeks) that thou art to reckon
for thyself: it is from the letting the sickle begin in the stand-
ing corn that thou art to begin to reckon seven sevens. And
thou shalt make a dance-feast-of-weeks for Yahweh thy god
according to the full measure of the free gift of thy hand
that thou art going to give, just according to the way in
which Yahweh thy god hath blest thee. And thou art to
rejoice before Yahweh thy god, thou and thy son and thy
daughter, and thy slave, and thy nursemaid, and the Levite
that is in thy gates, and the sojourner, and the orphan, and
the widow that are in thy midst in the place that Yahweh thy
god is going to choose for the abiding of his name there.
And thou art to guard and to perform these statutes.
6. Of the dance feast of booths. xvi. 13-15, 17.
THE ORIGINAL “D” DOCUMENTS
273
A dance-feast of "the booths” thou art to make for thyself,
soven days, at thy gathering in from thy threshing floor and
from thy wine-press. And thou art to rejoice in thy dance-
feast, thou and thy son and thy daughter, and thy slave, and
thy nursemaid, and the Levite, and the sojourner, and the
orphan and the widow that are within thy gates. It is seven
days thou art to dance for Yahweh thy god in the place which
Yahweh is to choose ; for Yahweh thy god is going to bless
thee in all thy income and in all thy handiwork, and thou
shall be surely joyful everyone according to his hand's gift,
according to the blessing of Yahweh thy god that he has given
to thee.
So far, the oracles of centralisation : now follow a second
set of counsels dependent on these.
7. Of officers, judges, and writers. xvi. 18-20a, a passage
that has been much altered by editors.
Judges and clerks art thou to set for thyself in all thy gates,
whose giver unto thee is Yahweh thy god for thy tribes (or
for thy judging). And they are to judge the people with firm
(righteous) judicial decision. Thou art not to look at ap-
pearances. It is righteousness in each case that thou art to
pursue.
8. Of the work of the judges. xvii. 8-10.
When a thing proves too difficult, and beyond thee, for the
decision assigning blood for blood, assigning judgment for
judgment, and assigning blow for blow, even matters of con-
tention in thy gates; then thou art to rise up and go up to the
place of which Yahweh thy god is to make choice, and thou
art to come to the judge who may be in those days. And
thou art to investigate and they are to set before thee the
utterance of the decision. And thou art to act according to
the very letter of the utterance that they may set before thee
from that place that Yahweh is going to choose. (And thou
art to take care to act according to all that they may teach
thee.)
9. Of Levites. xviii, 1, 2-4, 8.
As for all the Levite tribe, it is not a land share they are to
274
APPENDIX III
have in the midst of their brethren, but it is Yahweh who is to
be their share.
And when there shall come the Levite from one of thy gates
from any part of Israel where he has been sojourning, and if
he come in all the desire of his soul unto the place that
Yahweh is going to choose ; and when he shall keep doing
sacred service in the name of Yahweh his god just like all
his brethren the Levites who are standing there before Yah-
weh, then portion like portion they shall eat (without his
selling, on account of his ancestry).
10. Of sanctuary refuges, under the centralised system.
xix. 2–10.
It is three cities that thou art to set apart for thee in the
midst of thy land, which Yahweh thy god is giving to thee
to take possession thereof. Thou art to make the way certain
for thyself, and thou art to divide in three thy stretch of land,
which Yahweh thy god is going to cause thee to share, for
the fleeing away safe of any slayer. And this is the plan for
the slayer who is to flee thither and to live, who may cause a
smiting of his neighbour unawares, he being quite without
hate for the man, day after day, before : viz., Whosoever shall
come with his neighbour to the forest to cut trees, and his hand
shall be swaying with the axe to cut the tree, and the iron
shall slip from the wood and shall chance on his neighbour, and
he shall die; it is that man that is to flee unto one of those
cities, and to live. Otherwise an avenger of the blood would
pursue after the slayer because his intent would be hot and he
would catch up with him because the way would be far, and
he would cause to smite a life, even although there might lack
any judicial decision for death. Because this one was no
hater of that one, day after day, before. On this account, it
is three cities that thou art to set apart for thyself.
And if, perchance, Yahweh thy god should broaden thy
border, thou art to add for thyself again three cities in addi-
tion to those cities. So there shall not be shed any innocent
blood, amid thy land which Yahweh thy god is giving to theo
as a share, so that there should be murder beside thee.
THE ORIGINAL “D” DOCUMENTS
275
OS
11. Of witnesses in courts. xix. 15-21b.
There shall not rise up one witness concerning a man, for
any waywardness, or for any constant fault, in any fault
wherein one may fail : it is according to the mouth of two
witnesses, or according to the mouth of three witnesses, that
a case is to arise.
When there shall arise a witness of violence concerning a
man, to answer in his case concerning a going astray, then
the two men who have the contention before Yahweh shall
stand before the judges. And the judges shall inquire thor-
oughly; and lo, if the witness be a false witness, then thou
shalt utterly burn out the mischief from thy midst: so that
those who are left may hear and may reverence, and may not
continue to do still according to this mischievous thing in thy
midst. And thine eye is not to spare.
12. Of a case for courts. xiii. 2-4a, 6-18.
When an inspired man shall arise in thy midst, or a dreamer
of a dream, and shall give to thee a sign or a marvel, and the
sign shall come about and the marvel, of which he hath talked
to thee, saying, “Let us go after other deities, and let us be
their servants"; thou art not to listen unto the utterances of
that inspired one, or to the dreamer of that dream. And as
for that inspired one, or the dreamer of that dream, he is to be
put to death: for he has talked of defection respecting Yah-
weh, him who redeems thee from the house of slavery! Yea,
it was to cause thee to swerve from the way that Yahweh thy
god directed thee to go in. And thou shalt utterly burn out
the mischief from thy midst. When thy brother’ thy mother's
son, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or
thy neighbour' who is like thy soul, shall put upon thee in
secret saying, “ Let us go and let us be servants to other dei-
Observe here a trace of the old Semitic way of reckoning de-
scent by the mother. Cf. W. R. Smith's Marriage and Kinship in
Early Arabia, Cambridge, 1885.
2 This use of an as well as 77X has special peculiarities. Cf.
Steuernagel's Entstehung, p. 30.
276
APPENDIX III
ties," whom thou hast not known, thou and thy ancestors ; if
it be some of the deities of the nations near to thee, or those
afar from thee, from the end of the earth even to the end of
the earth : then thou art not to be willing for it, and thou art
not to listen unto him; and thine eye is not to have pity for
him; and thou art not to be compassionate, and thou art not
to keep concealing on his account. But surely slay him thou
shalt: it is thy hand that is to be upon him in the first
place, to cause him to die, and then the hand of all the people
in succession. And thou shalt pelt him with stones, and he
shall die, because he kept seeking to cause thee to swerve
from beside Yahweh thy god, him who causes thee to go out
from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery. And when
all Israel shall hear, then they will reverence; and they will
not continue to do according to this mischievous thing in thy
midst.
When thou shalt hear in one of thy cities, that Yahweh thy
god is giving thee for dwelling there, saying that there have
gone out men, vile scoundrels, from thy midst and they have
caused the dwellers in their cities to swerve, saying, “Let us
go and let us be servants of other deities": then thou shalt
inquire and shalt investigate, and shalt ask carefully. And
lo, if the thing be established as truth, that this disgusting
thing has been done in thy midst; smite, verily smite shalt
thou, the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword,
making anathema of it, and all that is in it, and even its cat-
tle, with the edge of the sword. And as for its plunder, that
shalt thou gather unto the midst of its open place; and thou
art to burn the city in the fire and all its plunder, as some-
thing wholly belonging to Yahweh thy god. And it shall be
a heap unto the ages; it shall not be built again. And there
shall not cleave to thy hand anything from the anathema, to
the end that Yahweh may return from the burning of his nos-
tril (anger), and that he may give thee mercies, and may be
ever merciful to thee, and may multiply thee, according to
that which he was pledged for to thy fathers.
13. Concerning the siege of a city. xx. 10-17, 19f.
I
THE L
277
ORIGINAL “D” DOCUMENTS
When thou shalt approach to a city to be at war upon it,
then thou shalt cry to it “ For peace!”
And it shall be that if, perchance, “Peace" be what it an-
swer thee and if it shall open to thee; then it shall be that
whatever people be found in it, they shall belong to thee as
tributary, and they shall serve thee as slaves.
But if perchance it shall not make a peace with thee, and
if it shall set up war with thee, then thou shalt make a siege
upon it. And Yahweh thy god shall give it into thy hand,
and thou shalt cause a smiting of all its males, with the edge
of the sword. It is only the women and the little ones and
the cattle, and all that may be in the city, namely, all its
plunder, that thou shalt loot for thyself. And thou shalt eat
all of the plunder of thine enemies whom Yahweh thy god
shall give to thee.
Thus art thou to do to all the cities that are very far away
from thee, namely, those which are not of the cities of these
peoples here. Only, as for the cities of these nations which
Yahweh thy god is giving to thee for a “share ;” of these
thou art not to let live any breathing thing: but anathema
shalt thou surely make them, the Hittite and the Amorite,
the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite,
just as Yahweh thy god has directed thee.
When thou shalt besiege a city many days, to war upon it,
to take it, thou art not to cause destruction of its trees,
namely, by swaying an axe upon them : for it is from them
thou art to live. So that is a thing thou art not to cut off ;
for, are the trees of the field men, that they should run away
before thee into the place of siege ? Only trees which thou
mayest know are not food-bearing trees, thou shalt cause to
destroy and cut them down, so that thou mayest build a place
of siege beside that city with which thou art making war,
until it falls.
Now follows a third set of rules, namely, for humane con-
duct.
14. Of kindness to animals. xxii. 1-4, 6-8.
Thou art not to see thy brother's ox, or his sheep getting
278
APPENDIX III
driven astray and hide thyself from them. Restore, yea, re-
store them shalt thou to thy brother. And if, perchance, thy
brother be not nigh unto thee, and if thou dost not know
him, then thou shalt gather it unto thy house-court and it
shall be with thee up to thy brother's seeking it, and thou
shalt cause it to return to him. And so shalt thou do to his
ass, and so shalt thou do for his garment, and so shalt thou
do for all that is perishing of thy brother's, which may perish
from him, if thou shalt find it. Thou art not to be free to
hide thyself.
Thou art not to see thy brother's ass or his or falling down
in the road, and to hide thyself from them. Raise up, yea,
thou shalt raise up along with him.
When there happens a little bird's nest before thee on the
way, in any tree, or upon the ground, that is to say, nestlings
or eggs and the mother brooding over the nestlings or over
the eggs, then thou art not to take the mother actually upon
her brood. Send away, yea, thou art to send away the
mother, while the brood thou takest to thee, to the end that
it may be pleasant for thee, and thou shalt lengthen days.
Whenever thou shalt build a new house, then thou shalt
make a parapet for thy roof; so thou shalt not put bloodshed
in thy house, when some falling one shall fall from it.
15. Of kindness to slaves and debtors, and the like. xxiii.
16f, 20, 25f; xxiv. 6, 10-xxv. 4.
Thou art not to send a slave away shackled to his master, if
he should escape unto thee from his master. It is with theo
he is to dwell in thy circle, in the place that he may choose
in one of thy gates, in that which is pleasing to him : thou art
not to put force upon him.
Thou art not to cause thy brother to pay interest, interest
of silver, interest of food, interest of anything where one may
take interest (i.e., “bite off”).
When thou shalt come into thy neighbour's vineyard, then
thou art to eat grapes according to thy mind, even thy fill,
and yet into thy basket thou art not to put any. When thou
comest to the standing corn of thy neighbour, then thou art
THE ORIGINAL “D” DOCUMENTS
279
to pluck ears with thy hand ; but a sickle thou shalt not
cause to wave over thy neighbour's standing corn.
A pair of mill stones or a rider stone (upper stone of a
hand-mill) shall never be a pledge: for it is a soul that one
would be pledging.
When thou shalt arrange with thy neighbourla loan of a load
of anything, thou art not to come unto his house to pledge
his pledge. It is in the lane thou art to stand, so that the
man to whom thou art loaning, may bring out the pledge to
thee, to the lane.
And if, perchance, he be a bowed man,” thou art not to lie
down to sleep with his pledge. Return, yea, return shalt
thou the pledge to him by the setting of the sun and he shall
lie down to sleep in his own garment; and he will bless thee,
whilst thou shalt have righteousness before Yahweh thy god.
Thou art not to oppress a hireling who is a bowed down man
(5) and a longing one, whether he be of thy brethren, or of
thy sojourners who are in thy land, in thy gates. For his day
thou art to give him his hire, and do not let the sun set upon
him, because he is a bowed one, and it is toward this (hire)
that he is straining his soul. And let him not cry to Yahweh
concerning thee, for then there would be fault in thee.
Fathers are not to be caused to die on account of chil-
dren, and children are not to be caused to die on account of
fathers : it is each one in and for his own fault that they are
to be caused to die.
Thou art not to push aside a judicial decision concerning
an orphan sojourner, or to treat as a pledge the garment of
a widow; and thou shalt remember that it was a slave thou
wast in Egypt, and then Yahweh thy god redeemed thee
thence. It is on this account that I am directing thee to do
These are pointed out by Steuernagel as among the few passages
where yn is used when we should expect 77%.
2 Poor man, a cf. Rhalfs on y and hy in den Psalmen.
Göttingen, 1892. One without any land property, and therefore the
special protégé of the prophets who denounce the larger oppressive
landowners.-[Craig.]
280
APPENDIX III
this thing. When thou shalt reap thy crop in thy field, then
thou art to forget a sheaf in the field ; thou art not to return
to take it. For the sojourner, for the orphan, and for the
widow it shall be; to the end that Yahweh thy god may
bless thee and all thy handiwork. When thou shalt beat
thy olive tree, thou art not to pick up completely behind
thee; for the sojourner, the orphan, and for the widow it
shall be. When thou shalt clip thy vineyard, thou art not to
keep going over what is behind thee ; for the sojourner, for
the orphan, and for the widow it shall be. And thou shalt
remember that it was a slave thou wast in the land of Egypt.
It is on this account that it is even I who am directing thee
to do this thing.
When there shall be a contention between men and they
be brought near to the place of judging, and they shall judge
them; then they shall declare as righteous the ever-righteous
man and they shall declare as bad the bad man. And it shall
come to pass, if perchance the bad man be a fellow to thrash ;
then the judge shall throw him down and shall have him
beaten in his (the judge's) presence, according to the amount
of his badness. By due number of strokes, it is forty he may
lay upon him; he is not to continue further, lest if he should
continue to beat him further above these blows with a great
beating, then thy brother would be treated as of little account
before thine eyes.
Thou art not to muzzle an ox while it is threshing.
16. Of rebate allowed to debtors at the “Remission "
year. XV. 1f, 7-11.
It is at the end of seven years that thou art to make a re-
mission,
And this is the saying 1 concerning remission : Let every
possessor (baal) of a bond remit his claim, whereby he might
cause his neighbour 2 to pay interest. He is not to come upon
his neighbour, or his brother, because there hath been pro-
claimed “A remission for Yahweh."
1 This looks very like direct quotation of an old customary rule.
9 See Steuernagel, p. 29.
THE ORIGINAL “D” DOCUMENTS
281
If there should be among thee someone who is too needy
for one of thy brethren, in one of thy gates in thy land that
Yahweh thy god is giving thee, thou art not to let thy mind
be hard, and thou art not to shut up thy hand from thy
brother, the needy one. But open, yea, thou art to open thy
hand to him and let him pledge, yea, thou shalt let him
give a pledge, enough for the particular want in which he
may have want. Have a care for thyself lest any saying which
is vilely worthless have a place in thy mind, to wit, “The
year of the seven, the year of remission has come near,”
and so thine eye be mischievous in the matter of thy needy
brother, and so thou do not give to him, and then he cry out
to Yahweh, and there shall be a fault in thee. Give, yea,
thou art to give to him, and thy mind is not to get disturbed
at thy giving to him, for it is in connection with this thing
that Yahweh thy god is going to bless thee in all thy work-
ing, in every outgoing of thy hand.
For the needy one is not going to cease out of the midst of
the land. It is on this account that it is I who am directing
thee, saying, "Open, yea, thou art to open thy hand to thy
brother, to thy bowed one, and to thy needy one in thy land."
17. Of the freeing of slaves in the “Remission” year. XV.
12–15, 18.
When thy brother, i.e., the Hebrew, shall get sold to thee,
then he shall serve thee six years, and when it is the seventh
thou art to send him away quite freed from being with thee.
And when thou shalt send him away quite free from being
with thee, then thou art not to send him away empty-handed.
Make, yea, thou art to make for him, as it were, a very neck-
lace for adornment, out of thy flock and out of thy threshing
floor, and out of thy vine vat. It is of that wherewith Yah-
weh thy god hath blessed thee that thou art to give to him.
And thou art to remember that it was a slave thou wast in the
land of Egypt, and then Yahweh thy god redeemed thee.
It is for this reason that it is I who am directing thee with
this utterance this day. Thine eye is not to be severe at thy
sending him away quite free from being with thee, for to the
282
APPENDIX III
double of the hire of a hireling hath he served thee as a slave
for six years. And Yahweh, thy God, is going to bless thee
in all that thou art going to do.
IV. Liturgical Appendix. xxvi. 1 f., 4-15.
And it shall come to pass when thou comest to the land
that Yahweh thy god is giving to thee as a “share," then
thou shalt take possession of it and shalt dwell in it. And
thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the soil which
thou shalt fetch from thy land which Yahweh thy god is
giving to thee, and thou shalt set it in the fruit-holder, and
thou shalt go into the place that Yahweh thy god is going
to choose for the constant abiding of his name there. And
thou shalt bow and say before Yahweh thy god :
“My father was a perishing Aramaean,
So he goes down toward Egypt and sojourns there with a few
folk:
So he becomes there a people great, well knit, and many.'
Then it came to pass we cried in trouble unto Yahweh, our an-
cestral god,
And Yahweh heard our voice, and he looked upon our bowing
and our weariness, and our extremity :
And Yahweh brought us out from Egypt, with firm hand, and
outstretched arm, and causing great fear, and with signs and
wonders;
And he caused us to come to this place,
And he gave us this land, a land trickling with milk and grape
juice.
Now therefore, see, I have brought the first of the fruit of the
soil that Yahweh has given me."
And thou shalt put it down before Yahweh thy god and
thou shalt bow thyself down before Yahweh thy god and
thou shalt rejoice in all the good that Yahweh thy god has
given thee, thou and thy house and the Levite and the so-
journer who is in thy midst.
When thou shalt quite finish making tithe, all the tithe, of
thy income in the third year, the year of the tithing, then
THE ORIGINAL “D” DOCUMENTS
283
thou shalt give to the Levite, to the sojourner, to the orphan,
and to the widow, and they shall eat in thy gates, and shall
be satisfied. And thou shalt say, before Yahweh thy god :
"I have thoroughly used up the devoted' material out of the
house,
And likewise I have given it to the Levite and to the sojourner,
to the orphan, and to the widow;
According to all thy direction that thou hast directed me.
I have not transgressed any of thy directions, and I have not for-
gotten.
I have not eaten any of it amid my mourning,
And I have not used up any of it amid impurity,
And I have not given any of it for one dead.
I have listened unto the voice of Yahweh my god;
I have done according to all that thou hast directed me.
O look down from thy sacred abode, from the heavens,
And bless thy people Israel, and the soil thou hast given us,
According as thou hast been pledged to our ancestors,
Even a land trickling with milk and grape-juice.
V. The Closing Portion of the Setting.
The concluding declaration. xxvi. 16–19.
One great central altar “at Shechem is prescribed.” xxvii.
2, 3, 5-8.
The awful authorisations, promises, and warnings. xxviii.
omitting many verses that bear strong marks of later devout
annotators' hands.
Declaration that the rules given are familiar, easy to the
grasp; and the final conclusion. XXX. 11-20.
B. The “ Elder" Amos-like Document.
Let us now turn to the other element which we have called
the “ Elder” Document, and which prefers the plural “ you"
at least in its prefatory portion. We shall be content to treat
of it more in outline, indicating briefly the set of rules which
it prescribes.
284
APPENDIX. III
The introductory portion of this must have included the
Decalogue as the “ Judge" did; but also most of chapter v.,
which describes the Horeb scene. The further portions of
the introduction can be obtained by setting together what we
have omitted when forming the “Judge's ” introduction, or
by setting together the “you” passages. Then this intro-
duction will be found to be very largely narrative, and, more-
over, it is pretty fully preserved. The whole reads fairly
continuously when it is so set together. Of course the editors
have retouched it, but the touches can be eliminated.
The main body of rules standing in xii.-xxvi., and belonging
to this second work, is made up of four different sets, or
rather, of the Fundamental Rule for Centralisation, and then
of three fairly distinct little codes. We give them much as
Steuernagel does.
Fundamental.
Of centralisation. xii. 1 f., 8–12.
The Elder's Rules.
Of those who deny the duty of Yahweh worship. xvii. 2-13.
Of the avenger of blood. xix. 11–13.
Of a body found dead. xxi. 1-9.
Of treatment of sons. xxi. 15–23.
Of treatment of women. xxii. 13-xxiii. 1.
Of the brother-in-law's duty to his brother's widow and the
heirship. xxv. 5–10.
The Oracles of Yahweh's Disgust.
These emphasise their particular directions by adding the
formula, “Because everyone doing these things is disgusting
to Yahweh.” They are the following passages :
Of seeking other gods. xii. 29–31. (But this is a doubtful
case.)
Of tabooed foods. xiv. 3–21. (This is doubtful also.)
Of asheras and other pillars. xvi. 21-xvii. 1. .
THE ORIGINAL “D” DOCUMENTS
285
Of magicians. xviii. 10–12.
Of tabooed dress. xxii. 5.
Of sexual worships. xxiii. 19.
Of dissolving a marriage. xxiv. 1-4.
Of just measures. XXV. 13-16.
Military Laws and the Like.
Of courage and of equipment. XX. 1-9.
Of captive women. xxi. 10–14.
Of sanitation in camp. xxiii. 10–15.
There are very few passages in chapters v.-XXX. which are
not included in one or the other of these collections. A few
sentences only, or brief paragraphs, are omitted because of
the present difficulty in assigning them to their proper place.
Although these analyses do not by any means solve all the
difficulties that arise in any effort to read Deuteronomy intel-
ligently, yet they make this very clear, that the composers of
the book made it up as a collection of heterogeneous rules,
from various sources, and in a quite unsystematic way.
APPENDIX IV
OUTLINE ANALYSES OF THE ORACLES
OF JEREMIAH
The following outlines are given much as they are proposed
by two of the more recent studies of the Jeremiah-literature,
viz., those of Cornill and Duhm.
i. Nearly as Arranged by Professor Cornill in the Polychrome
Bible in Hebrew.
I. Oracles written down by Baruch in 605 B.C. and then
published. They are summaries and selections of Jeremiah's
work from 627 to 605 B.O.
Chapters and bits in chapters i., ii., iii., at 1 and 19; iv. at
3; V., vi., iii. at 6; xi., xii. at 1 and 5 ; xviii., vii. at 2; viii.,
ix., X. at 17; xxv. at 1, 7, 15; xlvi., xlvii., xlviii. at 1, 25, 35 ;
xlix.
II. Oracles uttered from B.C. 605 to 599 under Jehoiakim:
xiy. to xvii. at 1 and 14 ; xii. at 7; Xxxv. at 1 and 17.
III. Under Jehoiachin, B.C. 599, c. xiii.
IV. Under Zedekiah, B.C., 599-588 : xxiv., xxix. at 1, 21,
31; xlix. at 34 ; xxii., xxiii. at 1 and 9; xxi., xx. at 14 and
7; xxxii. at 1, 6, and 24; xxxiii., xxiii. at 7 = xvi. at 14.
V. After the enslavement, B.C. 588 onward : XXX., xxxi. at
1 and 15; xlvi. at 13.
VI. A few verses whose true place is not discoverable: in
cc., ii., ix., xii., xvi. and xvii.
VII. A number written down long after the death of the
prophet: Verses in xix., XX., xxvi., xxxvi., xlv., xxviii., xxvii.,
li., xxxiv., xxxvii., xxxviii., xxxix., xl., xli., xlii., xliii., xliv.
VIII. Four brief passages not from Jeremiah's pen.
286
THE ORACLES OF JEREMIAH
287
ii. As set forth by Professor B. Duhm in his Kurzen Hand-
Kommentar, Published by Mohr, Tübingen, 1901. Duhm
counts as really Jeremiah's own only some sixty short lyrical
oracles :
E.g., I. Of his anathoth days : (1) A few verses at c. ii. 2 f.
and 14 onward ; at c. iii. 1, 12 and 19; and at c. iv. 1. (2)
Later than those, but earlier than 606 B.O., verses in c. xxxi.
at 2 and 15. (3) Songs concerning Scythia, verses in c. iv. at
5, 11, 19, 23, 29.
II. From his Jerusalem times : (1) Under Josiah, verses in
C. v. at 1 onward ; in c. vi. at 1 onward ; in c. vii. at 28; in
c. viii. at v. 4 onward ; in c. ix. at 1 onward ; and c. X. at 19.
(2) Under Jehoahaz; in c. xii. at 10. (3) Under Jehoiakim ;
in c. xxii., again at 13 and 18; in xi. at 15, and xii. at 7; and
in c. xiii. at y. 15 onward. (4) Under Jehoiachin; c. xxii. at
24 and 28.
III. A series of uncertain date, but probably from the
prophet's later years; in c. xiv. at 2; in c. XV. at 5; xvi. at 5;
xviii. at 13 ; xxiii. at 9 and 13; in c. xi. at 18; C. XV. at 10;
xvii. at 9; c. xviii. at 18; XX. at 7 and 14; xiv. at 17; and
xvii. at 1.
IV. Then there is a large Biography by Jeremiah's amanu-
ensis Baruch ; also many late additions.
INDEX
AARON, 248, 251, 253, 254
Amaziah, 51
Abiathar, 238, 241
American Indians, 14
Abiezrite, 233
Ammon, 221, 262
Abigail, 238
Ammonites, 235, 241, 242, 261
Abihu, 227
Amnon, 242
Abimelech, 35, 261
Amon, 155
Abimelek, 235
Amorites, 229, 233, 243, 252, 253,
Abner, 35, 240
254, 260, 277
Abram, 220, 243, 244
Amos, 11, 30, 31, 40, 42, 43, 44, 45,
Ab-Ram, 243
48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 70,
Abraham, 29, 35, 36, 220, 221
81, 89, 112, 127, 146, 163; bis
Absalom, 242
preaching, 39, 45, 53, 144 ; the
Acco, 233
man, 39, 40; his time, 40; his
Achan, 259
correct style, 44; his picture
Adam, 34
of the neighbouring nations, 45;
Adham, 219
his picture of Israel, 45, 46,
Adonijah, 242
47, 48, 51, 52, 53; sees and con-
Adonis, 97 n.
demns in Samaria, 115, 116 ; his
Æschylus, 217
ideal is goodness, 118, 119, 127,
Africa, 3, 87
128
Africans, 126
Amos-like document, 283
Agaz, 230, 265
Anaq, 229
Ahab, 42, 66
Anath, 233
Ahaz, 42, 59, 85, 93, 94, 95, 104; Anathoth, 170
refused to ask a sign, 94; refused Animal clans, 14, 25, 67
to go against Assyria, 60, 93; “Anointed,” the, how interpre-
his reign and policy, 81, 83, 84, ted, 176, 208
90; his death, 83, 100
Anthropomorphism, 28
Abimelek, 238
Apocalyptists, 131
Abinoam, 238
Arabah, 238
Ai, 232, 259
Arabia, 1, 88, 102; its monaster-
Airy, Mr., 41 n.
ies, 156 ; its steppes, 220
Alexander, 187
Arabs, 177, 187, 200
Amalek, 253, 258
Arad, 229
Amalekites, 230, 232, 239, 253, 264, Aram, 32, 221, 241
265, 266
Aramæan, 221, 282
289
290
INDEX
Ark of the Hebrews, 31
Armageddon, 168
Arnon, 254
Ashdod, 85, 102
Asher, 223, 231, 233
Asherah, 157, 159, 261
Ashur, the god, 157, 159
Asia, 3, 87
Asia Minor, 2
Assurbanipal, 151, 154, 165; im-
portance of his work, 151, 152;
his library of tablets, 151
Assyria, 1, 40, 42, 43, 54, 55, 58,
60, 70, 73, 84, 92, 93, 98, 99, 102,
105, 108, 118, 126, 140, 152, 167;
was used by Yahweh to save Is-
rael, 82, 126, 127 ; fell before the
Scythians, 150, 152, 161 ; its in-
fluence on Judah, 154
Assyrian MSS., 40,41 ; records, 55 ;
very ancient, 40; exile, 75
Assyrian Emperor, 100
Assyrians, 59
Asur-dan III., 42, 43
Asur-nirari, 42
Athaliah, Queen, 42
Azariah, 59; an aged sheik, 80
Azrijahu, 58
Babylonians, 167, 206
Balaam, 35, 36, 229, 254, 260; goes
to curse the Hebrews, 229, 230,
254, 260
Balak, 254
Bamoth, 229
Baruch, 179n, 286, 287
Bashan, 89
Battersby, 137
Bedouin, 244
Beersheba, 4, 48, 53, 221, 244
Ben-Beeri, 61
Benjamin, 222, 223, 230, 233, 235
Benjaminites, 24, 35, 235, 242
Ben-Remal-Yah, 59
Beth-Anath, 233
Bethel, 48, 50, 71, 116, 222, 233; its
sanctuary, 222, 232, 233
Bethlehem, 262, 265
Bezek, 35
Bichri, 242
Bildad, 189
Bleek, 133 n.
Book of Jasher, 16 n.
Book of the Revelation, 168
Books of Discipline, 146
Buddha, 217
Baal, Baalim, 20, 157, 203; as re-
lated to Yahweh, 65, 67, 68, 123-
129
Ba'al deities, 169
Ba'alah of Judah, 31
Baʻals, 124, 125
Baals of Shechem, 261
Baal-worship, 157, 159, 261
Baalbec, 234
Babel, 220
Babylon, 42, 88, 150, 153, 168, 171,
173, 181, 186, 195, 204, 206, 209,
214, 218
Babylonia, revolt in, 83, 86
Babylonian Empire, 171
CAIN, 35
Canaan, 1, 35, 36, 97, 201, 203, 208,
215, 223, 229, 230, 231 n., 232,
252, 260
Canaanites, 234, 253, 277
Caleb, “ dog," 14, 36
Calebite, 238
Caphtor, 126
Carchemish, 168
Carmel, 238
Carpenter, 137
Central Arabia, centre of popula-
tion, 1
Ceremonialism is bad, 85, 112, 113;
not favored by Deuteronomists,
146
INDEX
291
Chant of the Outstretched Arm,
92
Chemosh, 254
Chesedh, 120, 128
Cheyne, Professor, 118, 170, 196,
197, 200
China, 217
Choq, 178
Chronicles, the books of, 214, 215
Circumcision, 7, 231
“ Comfort Poem” 195, 198; its
ideas concerning God, 198
Confucius, 217
Conscience the voice of Yahweh,
and related to will, 113, 114
Cornill, 284
Covenant confirmed with a feast,12,
13; favourite idea with Hosea, 68
Cretans, 241
Creesus, 206
Cursing, 15
Cyprus, 103 n.
Cyrus, 204, 205, 208
Declaration of agreement and in.
structions, 227
Delilah, 234
Deuteronomic document, 68, 84,
141, 152, 156 ; does not mention
Hezekiah, 85; reformation, 133,
140, 164, 171 ; idea, 140, 146, 147,
149, 152, 153, 191 ; theology, 143–
145; ethics, 145, 146; school, 48,
160, 176 ; faith, 167, 171 ; plan,
170, 215; covenant, 170; the
finding of the MS., 156 ; its iden-
tification, 158, 159, 160 ; came to
a moral need, 143-148; came as
an amendment, 146
Deuteronomists, 132, 133, 135-42,
155, 180; sought moral ends, 143;
their progress, 144 ; their “sec-
ond laws," 146; their theology
and ethics, 146, 147, 148, 152,
153, 180
Deuteronomy, question of its au-
thorship, 135, 136, 137, 156-160,
178, 255 n., 268, 285 ; as ascribed
to Moses, 135; its date, 140.;
found, 158, 159, 160 ; "the Char-
ter of the Reformation” of
Josiah, 160, 168, 178, 179; the
problem and its clew, 136-142
Documents of the Hebrews ana-
lyzed, 22 sq.; Yahwistic litera-
ture, 24 sq.
Doeg, 238
Dor, 239
Driver, 133 n.
Duhm, 188 n., 196, 200, 286,
Dagon, 263
Damascus, 3, 43, 55, 82, 97; fell
before the Assyrians, 60, 97
Dan, 52, 223, 231, 233, 234, 262; a
sanctuary, 234
Danites, 233
David, 2, 17, 23, 24, 27, 29, 31, 35,
36, 37, 42, 126, 237, 265, 266 ;
caused the ark to be brought up,
31 ; favourite of Yahweh, 16, 17;
his conquests, 32, 33; made king,
237, 238, 239, 240, 241, 242 ; his
census taking, 241
Davidic dynasty, 17, 30, 33, 235 ;
the kingdom, 23, 25, 26
Day of Judgment, 50
Day, Yahweh's, 50
Dead Sea, 231
Decalogue, 131, 145, 175, 251, 254,
255 n., 268, 284
.
287
EARLY Hebrew life, 1-21
Early narrative literature, 22-33
Ebal, 258
Eben-ezer, 264
Eclipse, the great, 42, 52
Editors and editing, 176
292
INDEX
Edom, 32, 75, 88, 177, 221, 222, 244,
245, 260
Edomite, 238, 253
Edomites, 200, 222
Edomite sheiks, 222
Eglon, 233, 259
Egypt, 1, 6, 7, 47, 75, 101, 105, 150,
165, 166, 168, 171, 222, 223, 225,
227, 246, 247, 248, 260, 279, 281,
282; the plagues in, 67, 224, 225,
249; danger of its friendships,
85; succeeded Assyria, 152
Egyptian court, 55
Egyptian party, 58, 101, 104, 105
Egyptian slavery, 74, 75; misery,
76
Egyptians, 6, 7, 59, 126, 220, 222,
226, 248
Ehud, 233
Eighth century, coincidences in, 43
Ekron, 86, 87
"Elder" document, 283
“Elders" in the Hexateuch, 138,
139, 140, 146, 160, 268, 283
El, 248
El-Elohe-Isra-EI, 245
Eleazar, 254
Eli, 262, 263
Eliezer, 252, 260
Elijah, 42, 83
Eliphaz, 189
Elisha, 42, 56, 66, 83
Elohim, 144, 200, 236 n., 243-266 ;
revelation of the name, 247 ; cas.
ket, 263
Elohistic narrative, 15, 76 n., 243-
266; school, 130, 133 n., 136, 142,
148, 160; document discovered
by Hupfield, 130, 266 ; analysis
of the narrative, 243-266; series
of wonder children, 263, 265
Elohists, 34, 76, 131, 132, 155, 245;
their language, 76; how related
to the Yahwists, 131-134; Deu-
teronomists, 132, 155; exalted
Shechem sanctuary, 133 ; sought
moral ends, 143
El Qanna, 144, 227, 260
Eltekeh, 42, 87
Encyclopedia Biblica, 137
Ephods, 69
Ephraim, 54, 59, 80, 223, 232, 235,
246, 260, 261; its fruitfulness, 80
Ephraimites, 233, 235
Ephrath, 222
Eponym Canon, 103
Esarhaddon, 151, 154
Esau, 35
Ethics of the Yahwistic school, 34
Ethiopian dynasty, 86
Euphrates, 1, 3, 83, 168, 220, 252,
260
Euphrates-land, 260
Europe, 3
Eve, 34
Ewald, 133 n.
Exodus, 64, 144, 245
Ezra, 214, 215, 217
Ezra-Nehemiah, 217
Ezekiel, 165, 172, 186, 187, 190,
200; his answer to the exilic
problem, 191-195 ; his character,
192
Exile, its problems, 181-184 ; its
history, 181-184; if a judgment
on wrong doing, 183, 203, 204;
the suffering in, 191
Exilic literature, 186-187; prob-
lem and answers to, 188, 189, 190 ;
answer of the Book of Job, 188;
answer of the Holiness Law, 189–
191 ; answer of Ezekiel 191-195 ;
answer in Isaiah's Comfort
Poem, 195
FEAST of flesh for the clan, 179
Feast of the Spring-time, 226
Festal worship, corruptions in, 44
INDEX
293
GAD, 223, 230, 231, 241
Gadites, 254
Gath, 238, 239
Gaza, 83
Gemara, 146
Genesis, Book of, 176, 178
Geraite, 233
Gershom, 252
Gezerites, 239
Gibeah, 73, 235
Gibeon, 259
Gibeonites, 241
Gideon, 35, 233, 234, 261
Gilboa, 239
Gilead, 71, 221, 262
Gileadites, 56
Gilgal, 48, 50, 73, 231, 233, 235,
258 ; its temple, 48; a sanctuary,
73, 231 ; a place of note, 73;
story of the kingdom, 235
God the Unseen, 19, 123, 17""; had
material offerings, 19; had a
moral relationship, 19, 20; tribal
theory of, 123–129; as one only,
127; heightens the idea of sin,
210
Golden calf, 72
Goliath, 265
Gomorrah, 220
Goodness favoured by Yahweh, 50,
113, 120, 121, 122, as seen by the
prophets, 127, 128
Goshen, 2, 3, 6, 7, 13, 17, 20, 222,
224, 225
Greece, 217
Greek Olympiads, 41
Greeks, the, 41
Gudhgodbah, 254
Hal, Hallel, Hallelu-Yah, 12
Hamath, 58
Hananiah, 185
Hannah, 263
Hawah, 11
Hazor, 259
Healing by music, 18, 20
Hebraism, its reformation, 150,
180
Hebrew, a, 223
Hebrew monarchy, 16, 20, 24, 25,
26
Hebrew prince, 223
Hebrew story, 223
Hebrew text of the Scriptures,
166
Hebrews, “migrators,”1, 2, 13, 149,
200, 201, 220, 221, 222, 225, 226,
231, 233, 234, 235, 236, 239, 246,
247, 248, 249, 250, 259; their po-
sition among neighbours, 346 ; in
Egypt, 6-8, 35, 224; as nomads,
8–15; at Sinai, 9, 31, 32; their
settlement, 16–18; their religion
and morals, 19, 104, 126, 149,
178, 221 ; their relation to Yah-
weh, 12, 25, 28, 29, 119, 126, 220 ;
elevation of their moral concep-
tion, 25, 26, 27, 32, 213 ; the relig-
ious ideas anthropomorphic, 28;
their ideas widened, 31, 149, 178;
did not live by sacrificial relig-
ion, 71; spiritual result of un-
faithfulness to Yahweh, 72;
their conscience was the voice of
Yahweh, 113, 114, 115; Yahweh
proposed to restore the Hebrews,
203; their hope, 296 ; their faith
in the Unseen, 177, 183 ; advance
in their moral ideas, 178; their
return from exile, 214 ; in Go-
shen, 4; at Sinai, 224-231
Hebron, 2, 229, 232, 240
Herodotus, 152
HABAKKUK, 5, 182; purpose of his
book, 175; believes in Yahweh
and honesty, 174, 175, 177; his
Psalm, 176
Haggai, 315
294
INDEX
Hexateuch, 137
Hezekiah, 42, 84, 85, 100, 101, 103,
140, 154; succeeded his father
Abaz, 84; traditional view of him
improbable, 84, 85; his political
policy, 85, 86, 87, 154; keeper
of Padi in Jerusalem, 86; if
under Isaiah's influence, 101,
154; his reformation, 140 ; his
death, 154
Hilkiah, 135, 136, 156, 163
Hiram of Tyre, 55
Hittites, 2, 232, 277
Hivvite, 277
Hobab, 232
Holiness law, 189, 191; its answer
to exilic problem, 189-191
Home luxury, 88, 89
Homeric epic, 16
Horeb, 9, 145, 170, 248, 254, 255 n.,
284
Hosea, 42, 43, 54, 55, 56, 57, 59, 61,
69, 70, 71, 73, 74, 82, 83, 89, 99,
107, 112, 126, 139, 140, 142,
198, 203; his prophecies, 54; a
courtier, 55; the contemporary
kings, 54, 55, 61 ; his names, 61;
perhaps both prince and prophet,
61, 62, 63 ; his high character,
61. ; his imprisonment and death,
62, 63 ; his prophecies difficult to
analyse, 63 ; teaching of his un-
faithful wife, 67, 68 ; his view of
Yahweh, 68, 69; his regard for
instruments of worship, 69; as
a theologian, 72, 144, 203 ; turns
history into a sermon, 76 n., 115;
changes his denunciations to
words of comfort, 77, 78; sees
and condemns, 115 ; his ideal of
love and faithfulness, 119, 120,
121, 128, 203
Hoseah, 30
Hupfield, 130
IASHAR, 25, 232
Ibhrim, 233, 243
Ichabod, 263
Immanu-el, 95, 169, 251 n.
India, 217
Inundation (ilood), 220 n.
Isaac, 35, 221, 243
Isaiah, 30, 42, 53, 81, 82, 83, 84–109,
112, 120, 121, 122, 125, 131, 162,
198, 202, 218; prophet and states-
man, 79 sq.; story of his states-
manship, 74; his vision of Yah-
weh, 80, 81; sent as a preacher,
81 ; his sudden end, 88, 103 ;
substance of his sermons, 88–
109; his picture of his time, 88,
89, 90, 116-118 ; his theology, 90,
98, 99, 107, 128; distrusted Ahaz,
90; his “Song of the Vineyard,"
90; his dependence upon Yah-
weh, 93, 94, 95; his promised
sign, 95, 97; sees and condemns,
116; troubled at the sight of his
own uncleanness, 117, 118; his
ideal of justice and righteousness,
120, 121; as related to Jeremiah,
169; the deutero-Isaiah, 176;
part of the work for the exiles,
187; his “ Comfort Poem,” 195;
not always correct in his fore-
casts, 95, 97, 98, 99
Isaiah-singers, 214
Israel, 3, 39, 41, 43, 45, 47, 66, 79,
81, 93, 120, 121, 126, 139, 155,
208, 222, 229, 230, 231, 234, 239,
244, 248, 254, 261, 263; as a
kingdom was closed by Sargon,
82, 149; lost by disobedience to
Yahweh, 125
Israelite part, 242
Israelites, 45
Ishai, 237
Ish-Baal, 240
Ishmael, 222
INDEX
295
Ishmaelites, 200
Issachar, 223, 231
JABESH, GILEAD, 240
Jabin, 259
Jacob, 35, 222, 223, 245, 246, 247,
260
Jacob, "supplanter," “lier-in-
wait,” 3, 221, 244
Jacobite, 245
Japheth, 37
Jared, 71
Jarmuth, 259
Jebusites, 232, 253, 277
Jeconiah, 165, 166, 173
Jehoahaz, 165, 166, 168, 287
Jehoiachin, 165, 167, 286, 287
Jehoiakim, 165, 166, 287
Jehoshaphat, 253 n.
Jehu, 42, 56, 66
Jephthah, 261, 262
Jeremiah, 11, 131, 139, 150, 159,
168, 170, 171, 172, 175, 179 n., 180,
184, 185, 187, 191, 213, 215, 286 ;
his theology and ethics, 164-174,
198; the “weeping prophet,”
164; as a personality, 164, 168;
chronology of his book, 165; his
text in much disorder, 166-174;
date of his preaching, 165, 183 ;
was inspired by Yahweh to
preach, 169, 174
Jericho, 258, 259
Jeroboam, 42
Jeroboam II., 39, 42, 43, 51, 53,
55, 56; the intrigues of his reign,
Jeshurun, 231
Jesse, 265
Jesus, 205 n., 213
Jethro, 248, 252, 253
Jews or Judahites, 173, 186
Jezreel, 66, 238
Joab, 35, 240, 241, 242
Joash, 261
Job, book of, 186, 188; its answer
to the exilic problem, 188-189
Jonathan, 37, 236, 237, 265, 266
Jordan, 3, 13, 56, 229, 238, 258, 260
Jordan, East, 56, 59, 222, 223, 230,
233, 236, 254, 260
Jordan, West, 230, 231, 245, 258
Joseph, 7, 29, 35, 36, 222, 223, 230,
232, 246, 249, 260, 265; his ideal
character, 36, 246 ; his blessing
as a tribe, 230; in Egypt, 246,
247
Josephites, 233
Joshua, 15, 35, 231, 232, 251, 253,
258, 265; succeeded Moses, 258;
led the Hebrews, 258–260
Josiah, 68, 84, 131, 133, 135, 130,
139, 152, 153, 167, 193, 287
Josiah, his reformation, 154–160,
167, 183 ; his minority, 165, 167;
opposed Pharaoh-Necho, 165; his
reign, 166; his confidence in
heaven, 168, 170
Jotham, 42, 58, 59, 81, 261 ; father
of Ahaz, 81
Judah, 35, 36, 39, 41, 43, 45, 52, 58,
59, 68, 79, 89, 100, 102, 108, 109,
118, 126, 141, 162, 173, 177, 215,
222, 223, 230, 232, 239, 240, 262;
its position, 79, 82, 83 ; daughter
of Yahweh, 87; its petty sheik,
152; revolted from Babylon, 165 ;
call to submit to Babylon, 173
Judahites, 173, 232, 242
Judaism, 180
Judea, 166
55
Jerubbaal, 234
Jerusalem, 31, 42, 43, 45, 51, 79, 85,
90, 93, 162, 202, 217 n., 232, 240,
241, 266, 267, 287; its position,
79, 100; ruin impending, 106;
its morals, 107; fell before Neb-
uchadnezzar, 165
296
INDEX
Judge, Judges, mentioned in the
Hexateuch, 138, 139, 160, 268,
270, 284
" Judge," author, 140, 284; Elo-
histic, 142, 148, 160; as related
to Hosea and Isaiah, 140, 142-
160
Judge document, 268, 269, 270
Judges, book of, 25, 176
Judicial government, 19
KADESH, 229, 253
Kadesh-Barnea, 5
Kaleb (dog), 229, 232
Kenezite, 232
Kenites, 232, 264
Kings, book of, 176
Kir, 126
Kiryatharba, 232
Kittel, Professor, 79, 133 n.
Knowledge of good and evil, 28,
34
Korah, 229
Kosters, Professor, 217 n.
Kroob, 32
Kroobs, 10
Kuyunjik, 151
LABAN, 35, 221, 244, 254
Lachish, 259
Laish, 262
Law-time of Hebrew history, 178
“Laws for Humane Conduct,"138
Lebanon, 47, 88, 231, 244, 254, 262
Lebanons, 3
Leshem, 233
Levi, 35, 144, 222, 223, 230
Levite, 235, 262, 270, 271, 274, 282,
Lewiim “Levites,' 8, 13; associ-
ated with Moses, 13, 14
Libations of wine and oil, 12
Lo-Ammi, 66
Lo-Ruhamah, 66
Lot, 35, 220; the daughter of, 35
Lust-worship, 157
Luz, 232
Luzites, 232
Lydia, 206
Machir, 232
Machirites, 230
Maher-shalal-hash-baz, 96
Malachi, 178, 215, 216
Manasseh, son of Joseph, 230, 232,
233
Manasseh, 110, 154, 155; his reign,
154, 155
Manoah, 234
Mashich, 238
Mattan, 229
Medes, 167
Media, 165
Mediterranean, 3, 39
Medo-Persia, 150, 152, 204, 206
Megiddo, 152, 168
Menahem, 42, 54, 55, 56, 58, 59,
66 ; paid a thousand talents, 54,
56; was called “ben-Gadi," 56;
his usurpation and reign, 56, 59
Merab, 266
Merib-Baal, 241
Merodach-baladan, 83, 86 ; ruled in
Babylonia, 83; was opposed by
Sayon, 86
Messiah, the name, 305 n.; as ap-
plied to Jesus, 305 n.
Micah, 42, 109, 131 ; outline of his
preaching, 109, 110; his ethical
ideal, 122, 202
Micah, an Ephraimite, 262
Micah-song, 181
283
Levitical school, 176
Leviticus, 191
INDEX
297
Moses-Torah, 131
Muçri, 61, 62, 83
Muçur, 61, 71
Michal, 238
Michmash, 236
Miçraim-Egypt, 61 n.
Midian, 224, 226, 228, 229, 248;
priest of, 224, 226, 228, 248
Midianite, 233, 261
Minieh, 1
Miriam, 250, 253
Mishnah, 146
Mizpah, a sanctuary, 70, 221, 262;
the founding of the kingdom,
262
Moab, 102, 135, 145, 158, 221, 229,
233, 237, 254, 255
Moabite, 254
Moabite Valley, 229
Moabites, 233, 254, 260
Mohammed's Islamic doctrine of
fate, 65 n., 170
Moore, 137
Moral need calling for reforma-
tion, 143; questions of moral
government, 183, 184, 187
Morality and theology arose to-
gether, 19, 20, 21, 34
Moserah, 254
Moses, 29, 30, 36, 224, 225, 226, 227,
231, 258, 265; Moses in the des-
ert of Sinai, 6, 8, 224, 227, 228,
229 ; leader of the Hebrews, 8,
14, 36, 224, 225, 226, 227, 228,
229, 249, 250; as pictured by
the Yahwist, 36; described as a
prophet by Hosea, 76 n. ; “the
Lawgiver," 112; prophet and
preacher, 112, 144, 158, 227 ; said
to have been Deuteronomist,
135; in Egypt, 224, 225; his
Moab utterances, 135; proclaims
The Name Yahweh, 227; his
Elohistic history, 247-258; gives
the Statutes, 250; in the moun-
tain, 251 ; his death, 258
Moses's Blessing, 230
NAAMAN, 97
Nabal, 14, 238
Nabi, 265, 266
Nabopolassar, 165
Nabuna'id, 205
Nachah-el, 229
Nachash, 14, 219, 224
Nachlolim, 233
Nadab, 227
Nahum, 150, 161, 162, 165 ; herald
of Josiah’s reformation, 161, 163 ;
his idea regarding Yahweh, 160,
161, 162; date of his preaching,
165
Naphtali, 223, 231, 233
Nathan, 266
Nazarites, or vow-pledged men,
112
Nazir, 263
Nebuchadnezzar, 165, 174, 181,
184
Neghebh-land, 229
Nehemiah, 215, 217; his position
and character, 215
Nephilim, 253
Niebuhr, 1
Nile, 6, 168, 174, 224, 249
Nile, Upper, 61
Nineveh, 43, 62, 63, 150, 154, 165,
167; date of its destruction, 165
Nob, 238, 266
Nomad-life not suited to the He-
brews, 13
Nomads, their trend, 13
Nun, 14
OBADIAH, 177
Olympiads, 41
Omri, 42
Orders of Ezekiel, 146
298
INDEX
QADESH, 224, 254
Qadhosh, 128
Qedar, 102
Qeilah, 238
Qesitahs, 245
Qitronim, 233
Qobolam, 55
Qodesh, 125, 128
PADI, 86, 87
Palestine, 1, 13, 16, 32, 55, 60, 84,
RAAMSES, 224
Ramahs, 262
Rammannirari III., 43
Raphia, 42, 83
Rebecca, 35, 244
Red Sea, 1
Reeds, sea of, 226
Reedy Sea, 226, 260
Rehoboam, 42
Remission Year, 281
Return from the exile, the, 214
Reuben, 35, 222, 223, 230, 246, 247
Reubenites, 253, 254
Rezin of Damascus, 55
Romans, the, 41
Rome, A. U. C., 42
Russia, 152
Sabako, 61 n.
Sabbath, 250, 252
Sacred feasts to the gods, 3, 9, 12,
88, 104, 150, 243, 247, 260
Paran, 254
Pasch (passover), 225
Paschah, 272
Passover, 7, 157; established, 157
Pekah, 42, 59, 60
Pekah-ben-Remal-Yah, 59
Pekahiah, 42, 59; his short reign,
59
Peor, 231
Peor, Baal of, 73
Perizzite, 277
Persia, 217
Pharaoh, 7, 35, 222, 223, 224, 225,
226, 246, 249; friend of Joseph,
246, 247
Pharaoh-Necho, 152, 165, 167, 168
Philistia, 42, 48, 83, 84, 100, 101
Philistine, 47, 229, 234, 235, 252, 265
Philistines, 4, 15, 126, 221, 236, 237,
238, 239, 240, 263
Phineas, 263
Phænicia, 82
Piru, 62 n.
Pithom, 224
Plagues in Egypt, 224, 225
Plato, 218
Population, estimated, of Israel, 57
Potiphar, 246; his wife and her
intrigues, 246
Priestly school, 146, 176
Prometheus Vinctus, 218
Prophets as moral teachers, 111-
115 ; their tone of teaching, 111,
112, 113; condemn ceremonial-
ism, 113; condemn sin and all
evil, 113, 114; their ethics, 115-
118; their ideals, 118-122; their
theology proper, 123
Prophets of Goodness, 37
Psalmists, 131
Pul, 54
19, 25, 58, 72, 80, 123 ; pillars,
10, 31, 69; slabs, 170
Sacrifice, its origin and idea, 12,
19, 25, 71, 226; to Yahweh, 12;
form of imperfect life, 71; to
devils and not to Yabweh, 76;
sometimes useless, 108; as hated
by Isaiah, 108; in Egypt, 225; at
coronation, 235 ; human, 262 n.
Salt Sea, 221
Samaria, 41, 43, 44, 45, 47, 51, 55,
56, 57, 82, 83, 89, 97, 98, 105, 115,
124, 140 ; fall of, 42, 98, 109, 110;
siege of, 42
INDEX
299
Samson, 35, 234; his history,
234
Samuel, 17, 73, 83, 172, 235, 263,
264, 265
Samuel, books of, 176
Sanctuaries, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 31, 39, 50,
53, 57, 70, 73, 100, 104, 230, 270,
274; at Shechem, 220, 222, 244,
245, 283 ; at Beersheba, 221 ; at
Mizpah, 70, 221 ; at Bethel, 222,
232, 233; at Sinai, 224, 226; at
Kadesh, 229; at Gilgal, 231, 233-
273 ; at Dan, 234, 262; at Nob,
238; at Jerusalem, 240, 241 ; at
Laish, 262; at Tabor and Shit-
tim, 70
Sarah, 221
Sarai, 220
Sardanapalus, 151
Sargon II., 42, 62 n., 102, 103,
130; succeeded Shalmanezer IV.,
62, 82 ; his devastation of Israel,
63; the emperor, 83; his con-
quests, 83, 85, 86, 98, 101, 102,
103; his death, 103
Satan, 229, 239
Saul, 35, 73, 230, 235, 241, 204 ;
made king, 235, 236, 237, 238,
264, 265, 266 ; his defeat and
death, 239, 240, 266
Scythia, 287
Scythians, 165, 170
Sea of Reeds, 252, 253
Seir, 222, 260
Semitic, 176, 179; religions, 179;
faith and its teaching, 179, 180,
203
Senah (Sinai), 5, 230
Sene (thornbusb), 5
Sennacherib, Emperor of Baby-
lonia, 86, 151, 154 ; was met by
Egyptian intrigues, 86, 87 ; over-
ran Palestine and Jerusalem, 87,
108, 154; succeeded Sargon, 103;
marched away from Jerusalem,
108
Septuagint version, 166, 167
Serpent (Nahash), 34
Settlement of the Hebrews, 16-18
Shaddai, 223
Shallum, 42, 55, 165
Shalmanezer II., 42
Shalmanezer III., 42, 43
Shalmanezer IV., 42, 61, 62, 82,
97
Shear-Jashub, 93
Sheba, 242
Shechem, 2, 116, 130, 140, 141, 220,
222, 234, 244, 245, 258, 260, 266,
57; an important centre, 4, 71,
130, 131; northern sanctuary,
130, 133, 139, 145, 222, 244 n.,
245
Shechemites, 245
Shem, 37, 220
Sheol, 91, 119, 229
Shiloh, 235, 262, 263
Shittim (sanctuary), 70
Shrine or sacred casket, 10, 31, 32,
116
Shur-steppe, 226
Sib'e the tartan of Piru, 62 n.
Sidon, 233
Sihon, 254
Simeon, 35, 222, 223, 230
Simeonites, 232
Sin, its hideousness, 210
Sîn, 5
Sin, the Babylonian Moongod, 5 n.
Sinai, 5, 9, 12, 14, 31, 170, 176, 224,
228
Sinai, Mountain of, 226; Moun-
tains of, 224; deserts of, 243
Siout, 1
Skuthoi, 152
Slave-Lyrics, the Four, 207
Slave Songs, the Four, 218
Smith, Professor W.R., 12, 123, 179
300
INDEX
So, or Sewe (Sabako ?), 61, 83;
prince of Muçri, 621
Socrates, 218
Sodom, 35, 220
Solomon, 220, 223; crowned king,
242
Song of Deliverance, 231
Song of the Triumph of Moses,
226
Song of the Vineyard, 90, 120
Songs of the Slave, 214
Star-worship, 157
Steuernagel, Dr. Carl, 137, 138,
139, 270, 279, 284; his analysis
of the Hexateuch, 137-142
Stories of a Straightforward One,
232
Suez Canal, 2
Suffering Slave, Four Songs of,
207
Sun, 234, 246, 264; House of the,
Tiglathpileser III., 42, 54, 55, 58,
82; ravaged the north of Pales-
tine, 60; his death, 61
Tigris, 83
Tirhaka, 86
Tirzah, 56
Tophet, 254
Torah, 111, 131
Torah-giver, 230
Torah-place, 220
Torrey, 217
Totem name, 14
Tribal theology, 123-129; tribal
theory, 74, 75, 123
Tyre, 42, 55, 82, 97
ULULARE, 12
Underworld, 105, 124
Unity aimed at in Josiah’s day,
152, 153; by the Yahwists, 141,
Unleavened bread, 225
Uzziah, 42, 54, 81; an aged sheik,
80
Uzziah-Azariab, 58
VENTRILOQUISTS, 159, 239
Venus-worship, 254
Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones,
194 n.
264
OUVELDÚOus, 114 n.
Syria, 1, 42, 58, 81, 93, 97, 165, 254
Syria, Western, 43
Syrians, 126
Syro-Ephraimite war, 59
TABLES as if to feast a god, 9, 12,
25, 58, 70, 72, 80, 92, 123
Tabor (sanctuary), 70
Talmudists, 131
Tartary, 152
Taxation, estimated, 56, 57
Tehillah, 12
Tel-el-Amarna, 1; box of tablet
letters, 1
Teman, 5, 176
Teraph, Teraphim, 69, 156
Theologies as viewed by the proph-
ets, 124, 125, 126
Theologumena, 253
Theophanies, 5, 8, 224
WELL OF OATH, 4
Well of the Kid, 238
White Mountains, 3
Winckler, 1, 61 n.
Wisdom-writers, 131
Wizards, 159
World empires, 150
Worship, 147 ; instruments of, 69,
71, 72, 73
Ya'akanim, 254
Yahweh, 1-242, 245, 250, 254, 259,
260, 261, 262, 263, 264, 265, 266;
INDEX
301
his dealings with Moses, 224
231; sanctuary, 240
Yahwehwal
the Hebrew deity, 2, 23, 32, 39,
46, 71, 81, 102, 123, 124, 134, 140,
198, 233; a storm-god, or Rain-
god, 5, 7, 8, 9, 31 ; pronuncia-
tion of the word, 10; "cause of
falling," 11 ; the theology of, 21,
33, 220; “ of Sabaoth,” 31 ; of
Hosts, 32, 103, 125 ; his Day, 50,
90, 163 ; always favoured good-
ness, 50, 120, 121, 122 ; forsook
his own land, 71, 77; was forgot-
ten for other gods, 71, 72; gave
the kings, 73; is not a man, but
God, 75, 143, 220; judges and for-
gives, 77, 78; defended Zion, 84;
as owner of the Vineyard, 91 ; his
character 92, 98, 100, 104, 116,
118, 119, 123-129, 220; a reality,
107; full of love and tenderness,
116, 209; man's alliance with,
121, 122 ; has sympathy with the
slaves and oppressed, 124; his
character moral, 127, 209–213,
217; a new revelation, 144 ; his
influence in Deuteronomic doc-
ument, 156-160, 162–163; his
new covenant, 167; gave mate-
rial help, 168; his temple at
Zion, 171, 174, 176, 190, 240; as
one with Zion, 176 ; meaning of
the name, 172; as realised in
the exile, 181–185 ; his people,
200; witnesses, 201, 217; his re-
lation to the Semitic faith, 203;
views of his purposes among
men, 203; instructions of, 214;
at the Beginnings of Life, 219;
priest of, 224; with the He-
brews in Egypt, 224, 225, 226,
248 ; tries the people (Elohistic),
226 n. ; is tried by the people
(Yahwistic), 226 n.; his Declara-
tion of Agreement and Instruc-
tions, 227; his agreement, 229;
Yahweh-guard, 228
Yahweh-night, 225
Yahweh-oracle, 261, 263
Yahweh-prophet, 229
Yahweh-wind, 225
Yahweh-worshippers, 15, 16, 20
Yahwistic moral standard, 35–
37
Yahwistic narrative, 22, 219; its
analytical contents, 219-242
Yahwistic school, 11, 22, 251 ; its
ethics, 34 ff., 70
Yahwistic writers, 24, 26, 27, 33,
35, 38
Yahwists, 34, 36, 111, 125; their
teaching, 111, 112, 125, 126 ; not
legislators or ceremonialists, 112;
their objects, 24, 27, 34; their
theology, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 32;
their advance, 31; their lan-
guage, 76; their relation to Elo-
hists, 130–134
Yatebhath, 254
Yedidh Yah, 242
Yesha-Yahw, 11
ZACHARIA, 42
Zachariah, 55, 56
Zechariah, 215
Zeno, 114 n.
Zadok, 241
Zared, 254
Zebulon, 223, 230, 233
Zedekiah, 165, 173, 174, 286; his
reign, 166
Zephaniah, 90, 150, 158, 165, 184 ;
herald of Josiah's reformation,
161-163; date of his preaching,
165; character of his preaching,
184 ; his view of Yahweh, 162,
163
302
INDEX
Zion, 84, 98, 100, 104, 105, 109, 133,
150, 156, 157, 176, 177, 181, 187,
267; sanctuary, 136; had two
shrines, 1.57 ; its temple for Yah-
weh, 171, 174, 176
Ziph, 238
Zipporah, 253
Ziqlag, 238, 239
Zophar, 189
Zoroastrianism, 217
INDEX TO OLD TESTAMENT REFERENCES
Genesis.
xxiii. 2
xxxiv. 2
1. 10 f., 222
Joshua.
v. 27, 222
x. 13, 16
xxii. 222
Judges.
xvii.-xxvi. 186, 189, 191 xxi. 25–16, 25
xxv. 4 ff., 186
xxvi. 34 f., 43, 186 Ruth.
2 Kings.
ix. 66 n.
xv. 19, 54.
xxii. f., 135, 157, 158,
160
xxii. 13, 159
xxiii. 3, 159
2 Chronicles.
Xxxvi. 21, 186, 190
Xxxvi. 22 f., 187
Nehemiah.
i.-vi. 217
Leviticus.
iv. 20, 14
Deuteronomy.
iv. 45, 159
1 Samuel.
v. 193
ii. 15, 12
v. 1, 3, 31, 159
v-xi. 137, 138, 139
2 Samuel.
V.-xxxi. 139
i. 18, 16
vi. 1 f., 17, 20, 159 vi. 31
vi. 5, 159
x. 1-xi. 1, 21-24, 241
xi. 1, 159
xi. 2, 241
xii.-xxvi. 138
xii. 7, 9, 10–25, 241
xii. 1, 159
xii. 27-31, 242
xii. 3, 159
xiii. 242
xiii. 1 ff., 159
xiv. 24, 242
xvi. 12
xiv. 28, 242
xvi. 21, 159
xix. 242
xvii. 3, 159
xix. 8-39, 242
xviii. 10 f., 159 xix. 40-xx. 22, 242
xxi.-xxv. 138
xxvi. 16 ff., 159
1 Kings.
xxvii. 137 ff.
ii. 30
xxix. 20-28, 159
Xxx. 10, 159
2 Kings.
XXX. 17 ff., 159
i. and ii. 242
Isaiah.
i. 1-7, 109
i. 1-26, 104, 107
i. 5–26, 104, 107
i. 8-16, 109
ii. 1-4, 109
ii. 5-7, 109
ii. 8-11, 109
ii. 6-10, 18-21, 89
ii. 11-17, 89.
iii. 1-4, 109
iii. 5-8, 109
iii. 1-15, 90
iii. 9-12, 109
iii. 16-iv. 1, 90
v. 8-24, 91
v. 914, 1-10
v. 25, 92
v. 26-30, 92
ÍNDEX
303
Isaiah.
Isaiah.
Jeremiah.
vi. 93, 117
xli. 17 f., 196
xvi. 172
vi. 1-8, 110
xlii. 210
xvii. 172
vi. 9-16, 110
xlii. 1-4, 196, 207 xvii. 16, 211
vii. 1-6, 110
xlii, 1-6, 207
xviii. 170
vii. 1-16, 93
xlii. 8-25, 196
XX.-xxiv. 173
viii. 1-ix. 6, 96
xlii. 10–13, 200
xx. 7, 211
vii. 60
xliü. 23, 199
xxi. 164
ix. 7-X. 4, 92
xliv. 203
xxii. 164
x. 5–15, 102
xliv. 1-8, 21-28, 196 xxiv. 164
xi. 9, 122
xliv. 24-28, 204
XXV. 164, 171
xiv. 24-27, 102
xliv. 28, 187
xxvi. 164
xvi. 14, 102
xlv. 1 ff., 187, 204 xxvi.-xlv. 167
xvii. 1-6, 9-11, 97 xlv. 8, 200
xxvii. 164
xvii. 12-14, 100
xlvi. 1-5, 9–13, 196 xxxii. 173
xvii. 104, 108
xlvii. 196
xxxiii. 1 ff., 11
xx. 1-6, 101
xlviii. 3, 5-8, 11-16, 20- xxxiii.-li. 167
xxi. 16 f., 102
21, 196
xxxiv. 9 ff., 179
xxii. 1-14, 104
xlix. 33, 164
lii. 167
xxii. 14, 108
xlix. 1-6, 196, 207, 208,
xxii. 15–18, 103, 105 214
Ezekiel.
XXV. 8, 774
1. 4--9, 196, 207, 209 ii. 2, 202
xxviii, 1-6, 105
li. 164
iii. 24, 202
xxviii. 7-22, 103, 105 lii. 13-liii. 12, 196, 207, xi. 192
xxix. 1-6, 9-10, 13 f., 211
xi. 5, 202
104, 106
liii. 153, 164
xi. 19, 202
xxix. 9 f., 106
liii. 1, 7, 8, 164
xviii. 31, 202
xxix. 13, 106
liii. 12, 207
Xxxvi. 26, 202
xxix. 15, 104, 106
Xxvii. 194
xxix. 22, 200
Jeremiah.
Xxxvii. 14, 202
Xxx. 1-5, 104, 106 i.-xxiv. 167
xxxix. 29
xxx. 6 f., 104
ii.-vi. 169
XXX. 8-17, 104, 107 iii. 14, 170
Hosea.
xxxi. 1-3, 104, 107 v. 17, 170
i.-iii. 65
xxxi. 1-5, 107
vii. x. 171
iii. 76
xxxi. 4104
ix. 1, 164
iv.-ix. 7, 64, 69
xxxiii, 26, 200
xi. 170
iv.-xiv. 64
xxxix. 2, 86
xi. 18, 19, 164
iv.-ix. 7, 64
xl. 195, 196
xi., xii., XX. 213 v. 1-9, 70
xl-xlviii. 205
xii. 170
v. 10-vii, 2, 70
xl--lxvi. 200
xiv.-xvii. 172
v. 13, 54
xl. 1, 196
xiv, 7, 9, 21 f., 172 vi. 9 f., 116
xli. 164, 196
xiv. 21 f., 11
vii. 3-ix. 7, 71
xli. 2, 187
xv. 172
vii. 7, 54
304
INDEX
Hosea.
xii. xiii. 64,75
xiii. 76
xiii. 10, 54
xiv. 1-9, 64
xiv. 4, 54
Amos.
iii. 9-iv. 3, 47
iv. 4-13, 48
V. 4 f., 11
v. 14, 127
v. 1-15, 49
v. 16-vi. 14, 50
vii. 1-viü. 3, 51
viii. 4ix. 10, 52
Amos.
i.-ii. 3, 45
ü. 6, 45
ii. 6-16, 45
iii. 1-8, 46
Micah.
vii. 20
Hоѕеа.
vii. 11, 54, 59
vii. 4, 54
viii. 9, 54
ix. 8 f., 72
ix. 8, 9, 64
ix. 10-xi. 6, 64, 73
x. 3, 54
x. 5, 57
x. 6, 72
xi. 7-11, 64
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