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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 In 2022 with funding from 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 https://archive.org/details/literatureofoldt0Opuri 
 
LITERATURE 
 OF THE OLD TESTAMENT 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 
 In Preparation 
 
 LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 In collaboration with Carl Everett 
 Purinton 
 
 THE ACHIEVEMENT OF ISRAEL 
 
 THE ACHIEVEMENT OF THE MASTER 
 In collaboration with Sadie Brackett 
 Costello 
 
 ed 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS 
 
LITERATURE OF 
 THE OLD TESTAMENT 
 
 BY: 
 HERBERT R.*PURINTON 
 
 PROFESSOR OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE AND RELIGION 
 IN BATES COLLEGE 
 
 NEW YORK 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS 
 1924 
 
Corrriaut, 1924, sy 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS 
 
 
 
 CopyriGut, 1923, by Hersert R. Purinton 
 
 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 
 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This book was prepared originally for the use of 
 secondary schools, both public schools and church 
 schools, at the request of the Board of Control for 
 the Accreditment of Bible Study in the State of Maine. 
 The first edition, which was privately printed, was 
 favorably received by a much wider circle of read- 
 ers than was at first anticipated. Academies, high 
 schools, Sunday-schools, community schools of re- 
 ligious education, freshman classes in college, and in- 
 dividuals who desired a literary introduction to the 
 Old Testament have found the book useful. It has 
 been commended especially in four respects: It is 
 brief and inexpensive, helps one appreciate the liter- 
 ary beauty of the Bible, furnishes an historical back- 
 ground for each selection studied, and suggests the 
 spiritual value of the Old Testament to the modern 
 reader. 
 
 Brevity has been secured by omitting the text of 
 the Bible. A recent popular introduction to the Old 
 Testament contains three hundred and sixty-eight 
 pages, of which three hundred and forty-three pages 
 are devoted to a reproduction of the text of the Old 
 Testament, while only twenty-five pages are given to 
 the introduction and notes. This entails upon the 
 reader a twofold loss: The expense is very much 
 greater, and he is not encouraged to read the whole 
 Bible. This book sends the student to the Bible itself. 
 
 Vv 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 A knowledge of the historical background of Biblical 
 passages is especially important in our day, for the 
 interpretation of a passage depends upon three 
 things: (1) What the writer meant to say to his own 
 generation; (2) what eternal truth or principle is in- 
 volved in what he said; and (3) how that principle 
 applies to the new conditions under which we live. 
 Such a study as this would do away with nearly all 
 theological controversy. 
 
 The thirty-six chapters of this book are adapted for 
 use in the public schools as a part of the course in 
 English literature. The Biblical passages treated here 
 afford that combination of deep thought and noble 
 style which is everywhere recognized as great litera- 
 ture, and which has led the colleges to regard the 
 Bible as a classic to be read as a part of the require- 
 ment for admission. Students may meet a part of 
 their English requirement for admission to college by 
 studying this text. No sectarian question is raised, 
 and there is no reason why any school should not read 
 these selections as a part of its course in English lit- 
 erature. 
 
 Sunday-schools and week-day schools of religious 
 education will find these lessons a means of improving 
 the quality of their work. The lessons have been 
 tested by five teachers who used them in manuscript 
 form in their classes, and who made many helpful 
 Suggestions which have been adopted in these chap- 
 ters.. To one of these teachers, Sadie Brackett Cos- 
 tello, very much of the credit of this work should be 
 given. From her wide range of reading she has fur- 
 nished these studies with a large part of their illus- 
 
PREFACE vil 
 
 trative material, and her remarkable success in using 
 these outlines with her students has led to the hope 
 that they may be useful to other teachers. 
 
 Permission to reprint extracts from their books, re- 
 ferred to in this text, has been granted by the follow- 
 ing publishers: The Association Press, The University 
 of Chicago Press, William J. Hutchins, George H. 
 Doran Company, The Columbia University Press, 
 The Macmillan Company. 
 
 HERBERT R. PURINTON. 
 LEWISTON, MAINE, 
 July 4, 1924 
 

 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction by Dr. Augustus O. Thomas...............- 1 
 
 Tee ne Bibles, LAteraLure tetas: seta nees ss akc a eras 7 
 PART 1 
 
 LITERARY SELECTIONS WITH A BACKGROUND OF 
 PRIMITIVE HISTORY 
 
 TPE He. CTEAiON BUOLIes seein iaee's ale le eset d Onvelete, ae 15 
 
 III. The Serpent in the Garden....... MPA Salsa ses 22 
 
 PN PmmG Gs CaPOa Gs HOOU bres ole tytn cb eyake: aie (or shal tiac eh 28 
 PAK baz 
 
 LITERARY SELECTIONS WITH A PATRIARCHAL BACKGROUND 
 
 V. Sketches from the Life of Abraham............ 34 
 
 VI. Two Chapters from the Life of Isaac........... 40 
 
 ele Jacoby A Character, ouudy? Part Loy ob: oe 47 
 
 Willie iacop2 A Character OLUGY; EArt... os sons oflems 52 
 
 Tx biography of Joseph, Part 1.7.02. ka en ee 56 
 
 XMPuabiovraphy. of Joseph, Parbi2s 2 2.k. We sr jele cans 60 
 PART 3 
 
 LITERARY SELECTIONS WITH THE BEGINNINGS OF THE 
 NATIONAL HISTORY FOR A BACKGROUND 
 
 XI. The Romance of Moses’ Mission...........-.+- 66 
 
 ol poe Phor ballad lor the. MEd Dea. col. csc closlslon ee clots 71 
 
 XIII. The Beginnings of Hebrew Law............... 78 
 
 xt Veal he Db alaain. OTacies: ..s' Faeries Bele Sere reels 85 
 PART 4 
 
 LITERARY SELECTIONS ILLUSTRATING THE FRONTIER LIFE OF 
 THE HEBREWS DURING THE FIRST CENTURY IN PALESTINE 
 
 XOVeme e-sone OL DCDOTAN cs bate ee ayee vast Maker ea 90 
 XVI. The Sword of the Lord and Gideon............ 94 
 OVAL Desay Lon Leable mn i). ts. Peek hate we ee bie eee 99 
 Gh Lies EG OVISAINUCL cota Ws ot, « cateete ales eel anaes 6 105 
 
x CONTENTS 
 
 PART: § 
 
 LITERARY SELECTIONS WITH THE HEBREW MONARCHY 
 FOR A BACKGROUND 
 
 PAGB 
 
 XIX. The Choice of Saul as the First King......... 108 
 XX. Vignettes of Jonathan and David............ 112°. 
 
 AAT. David agian Outlaws. ain ne ee 116 
 
 AXI. “David's. Elegy oo yy 2 120 
 
 XXIII. How Jerusalem Became the Holy City........ 125 
 
 XXIV. The Ingratitude of a Royal Son.............. 129 
 
 AXY.\ The Epic of Jeroboam.:.. 2.004) 20. eee 132 
 
 PART 6 
 LITERARY SELECTIONS FROM THE PERIOD OF THE TWO 
 RIVAL KINGDOMS, FROM 9387 TO 586 B. Cc. 
 
 AXVI) ‘The Elijah (Cycle Wie) of es eee 136 
 XXVII. The Prophet in King’s Courts............... 139 
 XXVIII. Isaiah the Young Prophet and Poet.......... 143 
 PART 7 
 LITERARY SELECTIONS WITH THE BABYLONIAN EXILE 
 AS A BACKGROUND 
 
 XXIX., -The Poetry: of Hopes) 5: )/)00 to) ae 149 
 XXX. Some Adventures of Daniel at the Babylonian 
 Court aa fink, as Pe ata na ere 153 
 XXXI. The Song of the Suffering Servant........... 157 
 PART 8 
 LITERARY SELECTIONS FROM THE PERSIAN AND GREEK 
 PERIODS OF JEWISH HISTORY 
 AXAIT.. . The Storyvof Jonali/. 23. Waa ae) ee 163 
 AXXIT. Biblical Nature, Lyrics) }., 04...) ae 167 
 XXXIV. An Impressionist Picture of Old Age ota aie 172 
 XXXYV.." Two Songs'of Trista a 176 
 XXXVI. The Hymnbook of the Pilgrims.............. 180 
 
 Conclusion: How this Literature Became a 
 Part’ of (Our Bibles) 2.4 oe 185 
 Appendix.) 46/0010 70 voy aprile ie eee 191 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 By 
 Dr. Augustus O. Thomas 
 
 State Commissioner of Education 
 
 This textbook on the Bible is issued under the 
 direction of the Board of Control for the Accredit- 
 ment of Bible Study with the hope that it may 
 help meet one of our greatest needs. No lover of 
 mankind can fail to see the need of strengthening 
 the foundations on which civilization rests. No one 
 doubts that there is a world emergency which makes 
 it necessary that we return to the source of the 
 faith of our fathers for inspiration and wisdom. 
 Calvin Coolidge, President of the United States, has 
 said repeatedly, ‘‘The thing which the world needs 
 most is a proper spiritual conception of human rela- 
 tionships.’’ Thig spiritual conception of life is no- 
 where so well expressed as in the Bible. Professor 
 Cook of Yale did not over-estimate the importance 
 of the world’s greatest book when he said, that the 
 English Bible is the chief bond which holds united 
 in a common loyalty and a common endeavor the 
 various branches of the English race, and more than 
 anything else it tends to make perpetual that loyalty 
 and that high endeavor. 
 
 In our desire to avoid religious animosity we 
 
 have gone to the extreme of removing from our 
 1 
 
a BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 whole scheme of education that very factor which 
 may be the one thing that will prevent universal 
 animosity and will keep men from destroying that 
 vision of the brotherhood of man which is the hope 
 of a progressive.civilization. What you put into 
 the minds of your children through your educational 
 system will come out in the life and destiny of the 
 nation. If the Bible is the greatest well-spring of 
 spiritual values known to the human race, and is 
 non-sectarian and non-denominational, why does 
 our plan of the education for the youth of the nation 
 ignore it? The time hag come when the leaders of 
 state and church, while preserving intact our great 
 heritage of religious freedom, should unite in a 
 demand that the Bible, the supreme expression in 
 literature of the deepest principles of life, become 
 an integral part of our education. 
 
 This was the motive which inspired the Governor 
 of the State and the Legislature in their recent 
 action requiring that the Bible be read in the public 
 schools. The Governor issued a special message on 
 the subject of ‘‘The Bible in the Public Schools,’’ 
 embodying an address of mine given before a com- 
 mittee of the Legislature from which I wish to take 
 the remainder of this introduction. 
 
 The Bible is the instrument of progress of all 
 western civilization, for those nations which have 
 rested upon it have made greater progress in all 
 lines of human endeavor than those which have not 
 known it. It is the greatest production and the 
 greatest force in the world. It has come down to us 
 
INTRODUCTION 3 
 
 through generations, centuries, almost without 
 changing a jot. It has withstood the onslaughts of 
 the atheist and the pagan and the idolator. It has 
 survived the changing creeds of men. Its very 
 mystery has been its strength and has allowed each 
 individual to read into it that which most satisfied 
 the hunger of his own soul. Strange that we can- 
 not see that religion is individual, personal; that I 
 may read the Bible my way and you may read it 
 yours; that we may not agree possibly on the way of 
 salvation but it cannot be said by intelligent men 
 that any one man or any set of men or any company 
 of human beings, organization or association, has 
 the only royal road to the soul’s triumph. The 
 Bible, therefore, is a personal instrument and every 
 man must be allowed to interpret it acording to his 
 own reason, investigation, and the best light he 
 can obtain. 
 
 The Bible is the wonder of wonders, a master- 
 piece of English, perfection of diction, the height 
 of inspiration, complete in history, absorbing in 
 romance, rhythmic in poetry, brilliant in philosophy 
 and proverb, and startling in its revelations. I¢ is 
 the inspiration of law and as our Constitution ig the 
 fundamental law of a land, so the Ten Command- 
 ments form the basis of all civil and statutory law. 
 Any human law which conflicts with the tenets of 
 the Ten Commandments could scarcely stand on the 
 statute books of the state or nation. 
 
 The Bible has been the inspiration of the world’s 
 masterpieces in music, in art, and in literature. The 
 
4 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 world is richer for Handel’s Messiah, Meyerbeer’s 
 Prophet Eljah, Haydn’s Creation; in sculpture, 
 Angelo’s Moses; in art, Da Vinci’s Last Supper and 
 Raphael’s Sistine Madonna, portraying the mother’s 
 love, the finest sentiment which springs from the 
 human heart. 
 
 The Bible is the inspiration of literature. The 
 great masterpieces have sprung from it,—Milton’s 
 Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, Bunyan’s 
 Pilgrim’s Progress and even down to the later days 
 of Lew Wallace’s Ben Hur, and Ibanez’ The Four 
 Horsemen of the Apocalypse. It would not seem ex- 
 actly right that the Bible, vast in its storehouse 
 of riches, tremendous in its influence on human life, 
 should be excluded from the learners of today. 
 
 No matter how you interpret the Bible, you can- 
 not get away from the fact of its moral and relig- 
 ious ‘significance. There are those who believe 
 literally in the story of creation as found in Gene- 
 sis—that man came instantly from the word of God. 
 There are others who believe in the long, unfolding 
 process of immutable and unchanging laws. There 
 are those who believe that Job was a real character 
 and suffered pain and humiliation. Others believe 
 that he was a character in Hebrew fiction and played 
 on the stages of the old, old world. There are those 
 who believe that Moses stretched forth his rod and 
 parted the waters of the Red Sea. There are those 
 who contend that the monsoon blew steadily in one 
 direction for a period and piled up the waters of 
 the sea leaving dry sands over which Moses and the 
 children of Israel passed, but the monsoon changed 
 
INTRODUCTION 5 
 
 instantly when its season was over and released the 
 waters to deluge Pharaoh and his host. There are 
 those who believe that God fed the children of 
 Israel in the wilderness by the daily dropping of 
 manna. Others believe that they ate from the fruit 
 of the wilderness in a purely natural way. There 
 are those who believe in the miracle of Christ, while 
 others believe him to be the natural son of Joseph 
 and Mary. But no matter what you may believe 
 concerning the origin and nature of the Bible, you 
 cannot gainsay the fact that as a signboard of 
 human destiny it can never be displaced. 
 
 The Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount 
 contain the essence of human relationships, and the 
 embodiment of Christian life is given in the Golden 
 Rule. The simplicity of religious acts and of Chris- 
 tian bearing are found in the words of Christ as he 
 gathered about him his disciples and they asked, When 
 saw we thee an hungered and fed thee, and he re- 
 plied, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the 
 least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me. 
 He set up the simple, tangible ideals of Christian 
 service and the spiritual values which the world 
 needs today. Whether Jew or Gentile, Catholic or 
 Protestant, all must agree that the principles of the 
 man-child are eternal, as broad as human intérests, 
 as high as justice, and as deep as human hope. 
 
 The Governor in his message, the substance of 
 which we have just been giving, says, “This state- 
 ment is one that should be taken to heart by every 
 citizen of the state.’’ We shall show that we have 
 
6 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 taken it to heart if we see to it that the Bible is 
 taught to all our children. This book has been pre- 
 pared by one who has had long experience in teach- 
 ing the Bible, and the chapters of the book have 
 been used successfully as lessons with high school 
 classes in different parts of the state. I gladly com- 
 mend it to the consideration of our high schools, 
 academies, and churches. 
 
Chapter I 
 THE BIBLE AS LITERATURE 
 
 1. A New Application of the Word Literature. 
 
 The first surprising thing to the beginner in this 
 literary study of the Bible is that the sacred Scrip- 
 tures can be properly viewed as literature at all. 
 It has always seemed necessary to read and under- 
 stand them on different principles of interpretation 
 from those by which we explain other books; but 
 when we think accurately about the matter we per- 
 ceive that the authors of the Bible, whether poets, 
 historians, orators, priests, or story-tellers, had to 
 express themselves through the ordinary channels 
 of voice and pen and use the language and rules of 
 speech of other people in order to be understood. 
 And when we try to explain a difficult biblical pas- 
 sage, we must be guided by the same principles and 
 methods that we use in studying Milton, Bunyan, 
 and Tennyson. While the original books of our 
 Bible were written in Hebrew and Greek, yet for 
 us it is English literature. So well have the trans- 
 lators rendered the Hebrew and Greek into English 
 that the Bible is generally regarded as the standard 
 of literary style for all the English-speaking world. 
 Macaulay, the eminent essayist and historian, 
 asserted that if everything else in our language 
 should perish, the Bible alone would suffice to show 
 the extent of its beauty and power. 
 
 7 
 
8 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 2. An Unexpected Variety of Literary Forms. 
 
 The reader whose eyes have just been opened to 
 the beauty of the Bible should first survey the whole 
 biblical landscape. When he does take a bird’s-eye 
 view of the familiar book under the guidance of one 
 who knows its literary beauties, he will be as sur- 
 prised as the boy who walks through the woods 
 with a teacher of botany. On every side he finds an 
 astonishing variety of new forms, and a rich and 
 varied beauty to which he had been blind. For 
 example, at Genesis 3 is a vivid story in the form of 
 an allegory; at Genesis 37 begins a fascinating biog- 
 raphy of the boy with the ‘‘coat of many colors;’’ 
 at Exodus 15 one comes upon a brilliant poem, The 
 Ballad of the Red Sea; at Judges 5 is the Ode of 
 Deborah, an antiphonal song of great literary merit; 
 at Judges 9 is the fable of Jotham, which he tells 
 at the expense of his conceited brother; at First 
 Kings 18:20-40 is an oration by Elijah, by which 
 he turns the tide of popular sentiment against a 
 heathen religion; at Isaiah 5 occurs a parable, by 
 which the prophet suddenly pricks the conscience 
 of a careless crowd; at Daniel 7 is a vision, called 
 by scholars an apocalyptic vision because it de- 
 scribes historical events under the form of weird, 
 Supernatural figures; Psalm 23 is a lyric poem and — 
 Job is a dramatic poem. Many other forms and 
 figures might be pointed out by our literary guide 
 in the wonderful regions of the Old and New Testa- 
 ments. It turns out that the literary study of the 
 Bible, while not detracting from our reverence for 
 its religious teachings, does wonderfully enhance 
 our appreciation of the high place which the Bible 
 occupies in the literature of the world. 
 
THE BIBLE AS LITERATURE 9 
 
 3. Estimates of the Bible by Literary Men. 
 Matthew Arnold, the great English critic, says: 
 
 ‘‘Ag well imagine a man with a sense for sculpture not 
 cultivating it by the help of the remains of Greek art, 
 and a man with a sense for poetry not cultivating it by 
 the help of Homer and Shakespeare, as a man with a 
 sense for conduct not cultivating it by the help of the 
 Bible.’ 
 
 Goethe, who read the Bible so much that his friends 
 reproached him for wasting his time over it, gives 
 the following estimate of it: 
 
 ‘‘T am convinced that the Bible becomes even more beauti- 
 ful the more one understands it..... Let culture and 
 science go on advancing, and the mind progress as it 
 may, it will never go beyond the elevation and moral 
 culture of Christianity as it glistens and shines forth in 
 the Gospels .... The greater the intellectual progress 
 of ages, the more fully possible will it also become to 
 employ the Bible both as the foundation and as the in- 
 strument of education—of that education by which not 
 pedants, but truly wise men are formed.’’ 
 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson, a wide reader of all the 
 
 best writings in the world, spoke thus of the Bible: 
 ‘<The most original book in the world is the Bible... . 
 Shakespeare, the first literary genius of the world, the 
 highest in whom the moral is not the predominating ele- 
 ment, leans on the Bible; his poetry presupposes it. If 
 we examine this brilliant influence—Shakespeare—as it 
 lies in our mind we shall find it reverent, not only of the 
 letter of this book, but of ‘the whole frame of society 
 which stood in Europe upon it .... People imagine 
 that the place which the Bible owes in the world it owes 
 to miracles. It oweg it simply to the fact that it came 
 ees a profounder depth of thought than any other 
 book. 
 
 Sir William Jones says: 
 
 ‘‘T have carefully and regularly perused these Holy Script- 
 ures, and am of the opinion that the volume, independently 
 of its Divine origin, contains more sublimity, purer 
 morality, more important history, and finer strains of elo- 
 quence, than can be collected from all other books in © 
 whatever language they may have been written.’’ 
 
10 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 William Henry Huxley, in making a plea for the 
 use of the Bible in the public schools of London, said: 
 
 ‘*The Bible is written in the noblest and purest English, 
 and abounds in exquisite beauties of a merely literary 
 form; and, finally, that it forbids the veriest hind who 
 never left his village to be ignorant of the existence of 
 other countries and other civilizations, and of a great 
 past, stretching back to the furthest limits of the oldest 
 nations in the world. By the study of what other book 
 could children be so much humanised, and made to feel 
 that each figure in that vast historical procession, fills, 
 like themselves, but a momentary space in the interval 
 between two eternities, and earns the blessings or the 
 curses of all time, according to its efforts to do good and 
 hate evil, even as they also are earning their payment for 
 their work?’’ 
 
 4. A Table of Literary Forms. 
 
 It will be convenient to have for handy reference 
 the following partial list of various literary forms 
 and figures with which the student should become 
 familiar. 
 
 POETRY 
 Lyric Psalm 23 
 Elegiac—The Lament of David 2 Samuel I:17-27 
 Love song The Song of Songs 
 Ode—Song of Deborah Judges 5 
 Ballad—Song of Miriam Exodus 15 
 Anthem—The Nation Israel Psalm 105 
 Processional Psalm 24 
 Oracles of a Seer Numbers 22-24 
 Didactic Deuteronomy 32 
 Dramatie Job 
 A Wedding Song Psalm 45 
 Prayer Psalm 72 
 Doom Song Isaiah 14 
 Nature Song Psalm 29 
 Morning Hymn Psalm 3 
 Evening Hymn Psalm 4 
 Penitential Hymn Psalm 51 
 Communion Psalm Psalm 103 
 
 A Meditation Psalm 90 
 
THE BIBLE AS LITERATURE LE 
 
 Prophetic Tsaiah 53 
 Riddle Judges 14:14 
 Ritualistic Psalm 136 
 Proverbial Proverbs 15 
 Philosophic Psalm 139 
 PROSE 
 History—Call of Saul T Samuel 9 
 Story—Wooing of Rebekah Genesis 24 
 Biography—Joseph Genesis 37-50 
 Oration Deuteronomy 29 
 Sermon Jeremiah 7 
 Epistle Jeremiah 29 
 Idyl Ruth 
 Historical Romance Esther 
 Parable 2 Samuel 12 
 Essay Ecclesiastes 5:10-6:12 
 Law Exodus 20 
 Wisdom Proverbs 8 
 Invective Joel 3 
 Emblem Prophecy Ezekiel 37 
 Satire Isaiah 44:9-20 
 Dialogue Micah 6:1-8 
 
 9. Knowledge of the Form Helps Understand the 
 Meaning. 
 
 He who reads an allegory as if it were literal 
 history is likely to mistake the meaning. Men who 
 assert that the Bible teaches that the serpent talked 
 and the ass spoke should remember that Genesis 3 
 and Numbers 22 are allegories or parables, and that 
 the authors did not mean to be taken literally. This 
 illustrates the need of knowing the literary form 
 which the ancient writer adopted to convey his 
 message. Such knowledge not only adds to our 
 enjoyment in reading the Bible, but also safeguards 
 us against error. 
 
 A curious error has been made in the explanation 
 of Job 2:4. Someone who was ignorant of the fact 
 that Job was a dialogue with several persons taking 
 
172 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 part, credited the Bible with the saying ‘‘Skin for 
 skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his 
 life.’? But this selfish doctrine is not biblical; it is 
 rather satanic as one may see by observing that 
 Satan was the speaker in verse 4. 
 
 Sometimes it is an obscure word or sentence which 
 may be cleared up by the help of the literary strue- 
 ture. For example, in Psalm 19:4 the following 
 poetic parallelism occurs: 
 
 Their line is gone out through all the earth, 
 And their words to the end of the world. 
 
 The word ‘‘line’’ is found only this once in the 
 Hebrew language, and the lexicographers have no 
 way of determining its meaning. The meaning of 
 the root of the word is entirely unknown. The only 
 way of finding its significance is by a study of the 
 poetic form in which the word is used. It is well 
 known that these two lines form a synonymous 
 parallelism, the meaning of the first line is substanti- 
 ally the same as that of the second. It follows that 
 the subject of the first line should agree in thought 
 with the subject of the second. Therefore ‘‘line’’ 
 is equivalent to ‘‘words’’ and should be translated 
 ‘‘word’’ or ‘‘message.’? In many other ways a 
 knowledge of the form helps make clear the thought. 
 
 6. The Life Back of the Literature. 
 
 Great literature is produced by great lives, and 
 great lives come to fruition in the midst of great 
 historical scenes. This is true of the Bible. It 
 should be read in the light of its background of 
 epoch-making deeds wrought by men whose names 
 are household words in every civilized nation. As 
 
THE BIBLE AS LITERATURE _ 13 
 
 Longfellow’s Evangeline and Tennyson’s In Mem- 
 oriam gain in interest when read in the light of the 
 incidents which the poems celebrate, so the biblical 
 poems and stories have a richer meaning when the 
 remarkable history out of which they sprang is 
 clearly held in mind. 
 
 _ The following main divisions of the historical 
 
 background should be remembered by those who 
 wish to relive the scenes out of which grew the 
 world’s greatest book. 
 
 1. Primitive History: Before the time of Abra- 
 ham. From that era only dimly remembered oral 
 traditions were preserved. 
 
 2. The Patriarchal Period: From Abraham to 
 Moses, 2000 to 1200 B. C. No Hebrew writing of 
 that period has been handed down in its original 
 form. Later writers probably had to rely on oral 
 traditions for their knowledge of the patriarchs. 
 
 3. The Beginnings of Hebrew National History: 
 From Moses to Joshua, 1200 to 1150 B. C. Oral 
 traditions only. 
 
 4, Frontier Life in Palestine, the period of the 
 Judges and Samuel, 1150 to 1020 B. C. Beginnings 
 of poetry. 
 
 5. The Hebrew Monarchy: The reigns of Saul, 
 David, and Solomon, 1020 to 987 B. C. The begin- 
 nings of historical writing in I Samuel. 
 
 6. The Two Rival Kingdoms, Judah and North- 
 ern Israel, 987 to 586 B. C. The great era of pro- 
 phecy. 
 
 7. The Babylonian Exile, 586 to 536 B.C. The 
 
14. BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 Hebrews settled in three countries: Babylonia, 
 Egypt, and Palestine. <A period of great literary 
 activity; earlier writings collected and revised, and 
 new poems and prophecies written. 
 
 8. The Persian and Greek Periods of Jewish 
 History: From Cyrus the Great to Judas Macca- 
 beus, 5386 to 165 B. C. Alexander the Great con- 
 quered the Orient during these periods and extended 
 the influence of Greek thought and the Greek lan- 
 guage among the Jews. The Wisdom books and the 
 Psalms belong largely to this period. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 
 1. In what languages was the Bible originally written? 
 
 2. Quote the estimate of the Bible by one of the great modern 
 authors. 
 
 3. Name six or more varieties of literature in the Bible and give 
 an example of each. 
 
 4. Give two examples of the ways in which a knowledge of the 
 form helps one understand the meaning of the Bible. 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 Why have people disliked to call the Bible literature? Is that a 
 good reason? 
 
 Why did Mr. Huxley, the great scientist, wish the Bible to be 
 used in the public schools of London? Does this apply to the 
 schools of the United States? 
 
 Read Psalms 29 and 90 and see if the titles given in the text 
 are appropriate. Why give attention to history when you 
 are studying literature? 
 
 Name the eight main divisions of Hebrew history. 
 
 Special Assignments 
 Make a list of the different translations of the Bible into English. 
 See a dictionary of the Bible. 
 
 Add to the list of Bible selections given under the Table of 
 Literary Forms, . 
 
Part 1 
 
 LITERARY SELECTIONS WITH A BACK- 
 GROUND OF PRIMITIVE HISTORY 
 
 Chapter II 
 THE CREATION STORIES 
 
 The Earliest Hebrew Story of Creation. Genesis 2: 4b-25. 
 A Later Account of the Creation: Genesis I: 1 to 2:4a, 
 A Babylonian Parallel. 
 
 1. How the Hebrew Stories were Handed Down. 
 
 Imagine yourself in the home of Ruth in Bethle- 
 hem three thousand years ago. It is a warm 
 starlight evening. Ruth and her husband, Boaz, 
 and their little son are entertaining guests in the 
 summer room on the housetop. A travelling bard 
 is telling stories of the olden time and chanting 
 ballads of the heroic deeds of the fathers. These 
 stories and ballads had not yet been put into written 
 form, but were preserved from generation to gener- 
 ation by bards and prophets who stored them up in 
 their marvellous memories. Deuteronomy (6:6,7) 
 suggests that the fathers also repeated these tradi- 
 tions to their children. It is likely, too, that Hebrew 
 travellers and groups of warriors as they gathered 
 around their campfires at night would recount 
 daring exploits of their predecessors. 
 
 Among the many stories thus handed down were 
 probably the following: The Creation, the Serpent 
 
 15 
 
16 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 in the Garden, the Great Flood, Cain and Abel, the 
 Crossing of the Red Sea, and Deborah’s Victory 
 over the Canaanites. What the legends of Homer 
 meant to the youth of Greece, shaping their ambi- 
 tion and guiding their action, this the Hebrew 
 stories meant to the young men of the Chosen Race. 
 In the case of-Homer the legends were not written 
 until generations later, so the stories of Genesis 
 did not take written form for a long period of 
 time. 
 
 2. Comparison of the two Accounts of the Creation. 
 
 Genesis 2: 4b-25 was a part of the first great his- 
 torical document ever written by the Hebrews. It 
 was not until three hundred years later, if we may 
 trust modern scholars, that the priests of Israel 
 prepared their church history of which Genesis I 
 was a part. 
 
 It is not only in date that the two accounts dif- 
 fer, but also in style and in their way of describ- 
 ing God. Genesis 2 is picturesque; it draws a 
 picture of God making man from the dust and 
 breathing into his nostrils the breath of life; He 
 creates a beautiful river that flows through the 
 Garden of Eden; He commands the animals to pass 
 in procession before man to receive their names, 
 and takes a rib from man’s side and out of it creates 
 woman. 
 
 Read aloud the first of the three sections into 
 which Genesis 2 is divided, 4b-7 (the creation of 
 man), and observe the rhythm, which makes one 
 feel that he is reading poetry. It might be repre- 
 sented thus: 
 
THE CREATION STORIES 17 
 
 In the day when the Lord Jehovah made earth and heaven, 
 Then no plant of the field was in the earth, 
 
 And no herb of the field had yet sprung up; 
 
 For the Lord Jehovah had not caused it to rain on the 
 
 earth, 
 
 And there was not a man to till the ground; 
 
 But ‘there went up a mist from the earth, 
 
 And watered the whole face of the ground. 
 
 And the Lord Jehovah formed man from the dust of the 
 
 ground, 
 And breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, 
 And man became a living soul. 
 
 The second section (8-17) describes the garden 
 in Eden, and the third (18-25) gives an account of 
 the creation of the first woman. If it is viewed as 
 an early poetic description of the one God, the 
 Creator, and of the high ideal of marriage, in con- 
 trast with parallel accounts in other nations, this 
 narrative will be judged worthy of a place in our 
 Bible. 
 
 When we turn to the later account in Genesis 1, 
 we find a less picturesque but a much more dignified 
 description of God. As Creator he simply speaks 
 the word and each stage of the creation is finished 
 in its proper order. God is here distant and unap- 
 proachable in contrast with the older version in 
 which He is near and more like a human being, a 
 master workman. 
 
 Genesis 1 is also more formal, systematic, and 
 precise in its style. This systematic style is illus- 
 trated by the elaborate arrangement of the days of 
 creation into two parallel sets of three whose mem- 
 bers correspond. The first day gives us the habita- 
 tion of light, while the fourth day tenants it with 
 the heavenly bodies; the second day describes the 
 regions of air and water, while the fifth day fills the 
 air and water with birds and fishes; the third day 
 
18 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 brings forth the dry land, while the sixth day creates 
 man and animals on the land. 
 
 Another wide difference between the two stories 
 is shown by the following table: 
 
 Genesis 2:4b-25 Genesis 1:1-2:4a 
 
 Man fashioned Light created 
 
 Garden planted Firmament formed 
 Trees, and tree of life Dry land 
 
 River with four branches Stars, sun, and moon 
 Beasts and birds Living creatures 
 
 Woman created Man and woman created 
 
 FS ee LO 
 OIE AD i onde heh ar 
 
 3. A Parallel from Babylonia. 
 
 In 1875 a Babylonian poem of the Creation was 
 discovered in a library at Nineveh. This poem was 
 known as early as 2000 B. C., which was 1400 years 
 earlier than our present book of Genesis. The 
 resemblances between the Hebrew and Babylonian 
 stories are striking. As there were seven days of 
 creation in Genesis, so there are seven tablets of 
 creation in Babylonia. The order of events in the 
 one is somewhat like the order in the other. For 
 example, man was created on the sixth day in both 
 accounts, 
 
 The differences are even more important. In 
 Babylonia we have many gods, and an emphasis 
 upon the grosser features of life. In Genesis we 
 have a lofty view of the one God and of man as 
 made in the Divine image. To illustrate, we quote 
 selections from two tablets: 
 
 When above the heaven was not named, 
 
 And beneath the earth bore no name, 
 
 And the primeval Apsu, who begat them 
 
 And Mummu Tiamat, the mother of them all,— 
 
 Their waters were mingled together, 
 
 And no field was formed, no marsh seen, 
 When no other gods had been called into being, 
 
THE CREATION STORIES 19 
 
 Then were created the gods in the midst of heaven. 
 
 When Marduk heard the word of the gods, 
 
 His heart moved him, and he devised a cunning plan. 
 
 He opened his mouth and unto Ea he spoke, 
 
 That which he had conceived in his heart, he made known 
 unto him; 
 
 ‘‘My blood will I take and bone will I fashion, 
 I shall make man that man may.... 
 I shall create man who shall inhabit the earth. 
 
 Let the worship of the gods be established, let their shrines 
 be built. 
 
 The contrast between the Bible and the Babylon- 
 ian account is best illustrated in such stories as that 
 of the struggle between the gods. The goddess 
 Tiamat rebelled against the chief god Marduk. He 
 gathered an army to subdue her. He won the 
 battle, then cut her body into two parts; from the 
 upper half he made the sky, from the lower half 
 he made the earth. 
 
 4, Contents and Teachings of the Creation Stories. 
 
 When these stories are read in comparison with 
 the accounts of Creation in other literatures, two 
 facts will appear. First, the Bible uses the forms 
 and traditions current in the ancient nations. For 
 example, it has the seven days, or stages, of crea- 
 tion in which the Babylonians believed. The ideas 
 of chaos, water, light, the appearance of vegetation 
 and the animals and man were much alike in 
 several nations. So we are not to look to the Bible 
 for new teachings in science, for it adopts the scien- 
 tific facts current in the days of the Biblical writers. 
 
 Second, the Bible presents an entirely new view 
 of God and man and moral life. Those who are 
 looking for the evidences of inspiration should seek 
 for it in the realm of religion and ethics. 
 
20 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 ‘“‘In the beginning God.’’ The Bible opens with 
 the loftiest thought’‘that man ever conceived. Above 
 all nations, directing the motions of all the heavenly 
 bodies, and guiding the destinies of man, is one God. 
 This is in sharp contrast to the teachings of other 
 ancient literatures. They picture numerous gods, 
 who are frequently quarrelling, whose power and 
 goodness is very limited, and who seem to be com- 
 petitors of mankind rather than guardian angels. 
 T'o the Hebrew Bible we owe the priceless belief that 
 at the center and core of this material universe there 
 abides a loving, wise, and powerful being who made 
 all things and cares for all. ) 
 
 In the twenty-sixth verse of the first chapter of 
 Genesis there is another teaching of surpassing 
 importance to mankind; ‘‘In the image of God 
 created He him.’’ It is strange that in the very 
 first chapter of the Bible we have the two greatest 
 religious ideas known to man: the unity of God, and 
 the worth of man. Our own day is the first to 
 estimate aright what it means to be made in the 
 image of God. Every person, young or old, rich or 
 poor, learned or ignorant, has something of divinity. 
 Browning in his Rabbi Ben Ezra has expressed this 
 for us: 
 
 ‘*A spark disturbs our clod; 
 Nearer we hold of God 
 Who gives, than of his tribes that take, I must believe.’’ 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 Written Work 
 
 1. Narrate the second story of creation as given in Chapter II, 
 showing how it differs from Genesis 1 in its literary style 
 and its idea of God. 
 
THE CREATION STORIES JAY 
 
 2. Name five other stories of the Bible that were handed down 
 from antiquity. 
 
 3. What two great teachings are found in the creation stories? 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 Were the early Hebrew stories written by contemporaries or 
 handed down by word of mouth? 
 
 Is it possible to think of Genesis 1 and 2 as containing only one 
 story of the creation? Give reasons, 
 
 In reading the Babylonian account of creation do you see enough 
 likenesses to warrant the conclusion that the Bible writer de- 
 pended upon it? 
 
 Is the Babylonian story comparable to the Hebrew in religious 
 value? Give examples. 
 
 For what kind of teachings may we look to the Bible? 
 
 Special Assignments 
 Bring into the class the opening lines of Milton’s Paradise Lost 
 and Tennyson’s In Memoriam. 
 In what way was Haydn’s oratorio of the Creation indebted to 
 the Bible? 
 What parts of the creation narrative does Michael Angelo’s 
 painting illustrate? 
 
Chapter III 
 THE SERPENT IN THE GARDEN 
 
 Serpent in the Garden. Genesis 3:1-24. 
 Cain and Abel. Genesis 4:1-24. 
 
 1. The Serpent in the Garden. 
 
 Every thoughtful person sometimes asks himself 
 how sin came into this beautiful world, which God 
 ereated and pronounced good. This is the hardest 
 question in the world. The story of the serpent is 
 an attempt by a Hebrew writer to answer that ques- 
 tion. The story took the form of dialogues which 
 can be easily arranged by the student. 
 
 Dialogue 1. The Temptation 
 
 Place: Garden of Eden. Time: morning. Char- 
 acters: serpent, woman, man. 
 
 Serpent (speaking in a tone that suggests dis- 
 trust of God), ‘‘Has God really said you shall not 
 eat from any tree in the garden?”’ 
 
 Woman, ‘‘From the fruit of all the trees of the 
 garden we may eat except the tree in the midst. 
 God said, ‘You shall not eat or touch it, lest you — 
 die? 
 
 Serpent, ‘‘It will not hurt you. God ig jealous 
 lest having eaten you know good and evil.”’ 
 
 Now the fruit looked appetising, and the woman 
 was fascinated with the idea of becoming wise. So 
 she ate and did not realize any hurt, and then gave 
 
 22 : 
 
THE SERPENT IN THE. GARDEN 23 
 
 to her husband who ate also. Their consciences 
 began to trouble them, and they tried to conceal their 
 . shame by a covering of fig leaves. 
 
 Dialogue 2. The Punishment 
 
 Place: In the deeply wooded part of the garden. 
 Time: Early evening. Characters: God, woman, 
 man, serpent. God walks about alone, calls to the 
 man, who with the woman has hidden. This should 
 be completed by the students. 
 
 2. The Literary Character of Genesis 3. 
 
 The story of Gen. 3 has been well called ‘The 
 Pearl of Genesis’. Note the actors in the drama: 
 the man and the woman, both innocent, ignorant, 
 untested; the serpent, always and everywhere the 
 object of loathing, yet of fascination; Jehovah, rep- 
 resented as walking in the garden in the cool of the 
 day, apparently in the habit of talking familiarly 
 with the man whom he has made. 
 
 Prof. Wild in her valuable book, A Literary Guide 
 to the Bible, says: ‘‘This is an example of the most 
 spontaneous, original writing we have in the Bible. 
 The simplicity is child-like, but the reach in pro- 
 fundity of the religious and moral feeling is won- 
 derful.’’ The balance and poetic rhythm are brought 
 out in the following translation of certain sections: 
 
 Cursed shalt thou be above all animals, 
 
 And above all the beasts of the field. 
 
 Enmity will I set between thee and the woman 
 And between thy offspring and her offspring. 
 He shall bruise thee on the head, 
 
 ‘And thou shalt wound him on the heel.’’ 
 
24 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 Although these stories in Genesis are printed in 
 our Bible as prose, they are poetic in form, as 
 shown by the quotation. Read the lines above and 
 note that the second line in each case is a repetition 
 of the first. The word animals in the first line is 
 repeated in the beasts of the field of the second line. 
 In the next to the last line, the parallel meaning is 
 brought out in the contrast between the word head 
 and heel. 
 
 Another evidence that this is poetry is found in 
 the many figures of speech: the Serpent talks, God 
 walks in the garden. This reminds us that we are 
 dealing here with allegory, rather than history, for 
 the narrative seeks to trace the origin of the ordi- 
 nary experiences of life, so common and yet so puz- 
 zlmg. It puts in vivid story-form the philosophy 
 of such things as the distinction of sex, the institu- 
 tion of marriage, the power of sin in the world, the 
 custom of wearing clothes, the peculiarities of the 
 snake, and the pain of childbearing. 
 
 3. The Purpose and Meaning of Genesis 3. 
 
 The main object of the author is to explain the 
 origin of sin and the nature of temptation. Sin is 
 disobedience to Jehovah’s commands, and was first 
 suggested to the mind of the innocent woman by a 
 serpent. Milton thought that the serpent repre- 
 sented Satan, but the Bible makes no mention of 
 Satan until many centuries after the period repre- 
 sented here. Someone has said, ‘‘Could there be 
 a better picture of temptation than that of the 
 serpent, slimy, ugly, yet compelling? It can out- 
 climb the monkey, out-swim the fish, out-leap the 
 ‘zebra, out-wrestle the athlete, and crush the tiger. 
 
THE SERPENT IN THE GARDEN 25 
 
 The serpent finds its way everywhere, over every 
 fence, or barrier, into every crevice or recess. Note 
 the subtle appeal to the physical appetite, to the 
 esthetic, to the intellect. Temptation delights in 
 disguises. It says, ‘Why will a man insist on being 
 tied to his mother’s apron string? Let him go out 
 and learn something, see the world, taste the sweets 
 of life, and see the things which are beautiful.’ ’’ 
 The author of Genesis 3 teaches us to guard against 
 these appeals. 
 
 Three important lessons are suggested by this 
 passage: (1) Man had the power of choice, (2) Sin 
 is of man’s creation, not God’s, (3) Sin severs the 
 happy relations between man and God. 
 
 ‘‘They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld 
 
 Of Paradise, so late their happy seat, 
 
 Wav’d over by that flaming brand; the gate 
 
 With dreadful faces throng’d, and fiery arms. 
 
 Some natural tears they dropt, but wip’d them soon; 
 
 The world was all before them, where to choose 
 
 Their place of rest, and Providence their guide: 
 
 They hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow, 
 
 Through Eden took their solitary way.’’ 
 —Milton: Paradise Lost. 
 
 4, The Story of Cain and Abel. Genesis 4:1-15. 
 
 This incident in the early history follows natural- 
 ly the sketch of the beginning of sin. The story is 
 easy to remember if we divide it as follows: verses 
 1-4, the farmer Cain and the shepherd Abel make 
 their offerings at the altar of Jehovah; verses 5-7, 
 Jehovah rejects Cain’s offering because of spirit 
 shown, and Cain is angry; verses 8-12, Cain murders 
 Abel and Jehovah pronounces a curse; verses 13-22, 
 protected by a certain mark, Cain goes out to found 
 a new civilization in which there are cities, music, 
 
26 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 and the use of metals; 23 and 24 preserve in verse 
 form a record of the old tribal custom of blood 
 revenge. 
 
 Bewer, in his Lvterature of the Old Testament, 
 explains the mark which was put upon Cain, and 
 also helps us understand certain other difficult allu- 
 sions in this story. He thinks that the mark was 
 probably some stamp on his body to indicate that 
 he belonged to the tribe of Canaanites, a tribe fam- 
 ous for its terrible custom of blood revenge. The 
 story assumes also that there were very many other 
 people in the world besides Adam’s family, for Cain 
 went out and built a city. These two illustrations 
 show that this incident belongs to a later stage of 
 history than that of Adam, because the law of blood 
 revenge and the existence of many people implies 
 many generations after the first man. 
 
 Some of the principles involved in the story of 
 Cain and Abel are as follows: 
 
 1. It is the character and spirit of our ser- 
 vice that God observes. 
 
 2. Great crimes are committed by men whose 
 characters have crumbled gradually through the 
 effects of little sins. 
 
 3. Every man is his brother’s keeper, bound 
 by the responsibility of brotherhood to guard 
 him by influences for good. Phelps, in his 
 Human Nature wm the Bible, comments on this 
 as follows: 
 
 ‘‘Human responsibility was the law that Cain 
 broke: his surly remark, ‘Am [ my brother’s 
 keeper?’ has come echoing down the ages, and re- 
 
THE SERPENT IN THE GARDEN ye 
 
 ceived a final answer in our Lord’s parable of the 
 Good Samaritan. The rebellious element in Cain’s 
 nature has made him a hot favorite with many poets, 
 who turned him into a hero of drama, Byron’s Cain 
 arousing the attention of Europe. But Cain was 
 really no hero, he was simply very human. He 
 seems more real than his mild brother. Cain’s 
 descendants were important pioneers; the murderer 
 Lamech had three sons—Jabal, the cowboy; Jubal, 
 the musician; Tubal-Cain, the smith. It is pleasant 
 to see, So early in history, music placed on an appar- 
 ent equality with more ‘useful’ and _ philistine 
 work.’’ 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 
 1. Names of the speakers in the dialogue in Genesis 3. 
 
 2. Two evidences that Genesis 3 is poetry. 
 
 3. Name some objections to the view that Genesis 3 is literal 
 history. 
 
 4, What verse in this story is most often quoted, and what 
 social principle is expressed there? 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 Why is the serpent an appropriate symbol of temptation? 
 What was the purpose of Genesis 3? 
 
 Were there people in the world outside of Adam’s family at 
 that time? 
 
 What do you regard as the three most important lessons taught 
 in Genesis 3? 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 Write a sketch of the origin of music. See an encyclopedia. 
 
 Compare the parallelism of lines in Psalm 2:10 with the paral- 
 lelism of lines in Genesis 3. Write six couplets from Genesis 
 3 to illustrate parallelism. 
 
Chapter IV 
 THE GREAT FLOOD 
 
 Primitive Account of the Flood. Parts of Genesis 6-8. 
 Older Babylonian Story, in the Epic of Gilgamesh. 
 
 1. The Farlier Account of the Flood. 
 
 We get a clearer and more consistent story of 
 the flood if we select the following verses only, from 
 Genesis, chapters six to eight: 6:5-8; 7:1-5, 10, 16b, 
 17, 22, 23; 8:6-12, 20-22, The remaining verses of 
 these chapters also give a complete story of the flood 
 which differs in some points from the primitive 
 version. For example, Gen. 7:24 gives the length 
 of the flood as 150 days, while the older account in 
 Genesis 7:17 states the time as 40 days. 
 
 It is evident that there are two accounts of the 
 flood woven together in these chapters. This is 
 explained by the fact that early history in the Bible 
 was based on records written at different times and 
 in different places. In Judah about 850 B. CG. a 
 history was written which we call J because it 
 used the name of Jehovah for God. About four 
 hundred years later another history was written 
 which we call P because it is chiefly interested in 
 the priests and their laws. Later, when our present 
 Pentateuch was completed, these separate histories 
 were brought together. This habit of combining 
 different histories into one explains why inconsisten- 
 cies often appear in the narrative. 
 
 28 
 
THE GREAT FLOOD 29 
 
 2. Babylonian Flood Story. 
 
 The Babylonians had an account of the Flood 
 which has been preserved for us in a long poem 
 which they called the Gilgamesh Epic. Rogers, in 
 his Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament, says 
 in substance, that this epic is the most beautiful and 
 most extensive poem which has been preserved to 
 us from the literature of the ancient Babylonians. 
 It consisted originally of twelve large tablets, many 
 of which have been broken and parts lost. In the 
 form in which we have it, the poem dates from 
 about 650 B. C., but it contains long passages written 
 as early as 2000 B. C. 
 
 The following quotations from the Babylonian 
 story of the flood will suffice to enable the student 
 to make a comparison with the biblical account: 
 
 ‘*O Gilgamish, I will tell thee a wonderful story. 
 Thou knowest the city of Shurippak on the Euphrates? 
 It was corrupt, and the gods decided to destroy it with a 
 flood. 
 Ea, the god of wisdom, confided their plans to me. 
 ‘Thou man of Shurippak, build a ship; 
 Forsake thy wealth and save thy life. 
 Take living beasts of every kind into the ship. 
 Measure its proportions well, and into the sea shalt 
 launch it.’ ’’ 
 
 ‘‘The god Shamash appointed a season and said: 
 ‘In the night I will cause the heavens to rain; 
 Enter the ship and close the door.’ 
 
 The evening of which he spoke came; 
 
 I watched the approaching storm; 
 
 I entered the ship and closed the door...... 
 
 The deluge covered the surface of the earth...... 
 
 In a single day it rose above the mountains, 
 
 And like a battle it rushed upon the people, 
 
 A brother heeded not his brother; 
 
 Men would not help each other. 
 
 Six days and nights passed; 
 
 v 
 
30 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 The wind and storm were overwhelming. 
 
 On the seventh day at dawn, the wind ceased; 
 
 The storm, which had smitten the earth like an earthquake, 
 was quieted, 
 
 I looked out upon the sea; 
 
 All mankind had turned to clay; 
 
 Like reeds their corpses floated on the water. 
 
 Grieved, I sat down to weep.’’ 
 
 ‘‘When the seventh day approached, 
 
 I sent forth a dove and let her go. 
 
 The dove flew away and came back, 
 
 For there was no resting place and she returned, 
 
 I sent forth a swallow and let her go, 
 
 The swallow flew away and came back, 
 
 For there was no resting place and she returned. 
 
 I sent forth a raven and let her go, : 
 
 The raven flew away, she saw the abatement of the waters, 
 
 She drew near, she waded, she croaked and came not back, 
 
 Then I sent everything forth to the four quarters of 
 heaven, I offered sacrifice; 
 
 I made a libation upon the mountain’s peak. 
 
 The gods smelt the savor, 
 
 The gods smelt the sweet savor, 
 
 The gods gathered like flies over the sacrificer.?? 
 
 3. Comparison of the Hebrew and Babylonian Ac- 
 counts of the Flood. 
 
 The Babylonian account as a whole compared 
 with Genesis shows many close parallels. Note the 
 following: the building of a ship or ark with stories; 
 animals and people enter the ark, and the door is 
 closed; the destruction of all living things by a great 
 flood; the sending forth of a dove and a raven, the 
 offering of sacrifices after disembarking; the gods 
 smell the sweet savor; the promise that mankind 
 will never again be destroyed by a flood. 
 
 This likeness does not prove that Genesis 
 borrowed its account from the Babylonians, but 
 rather shows that both records of the flood grew up 
 in the same great section of the world in the same 
 
THE GREAT FLOOD ool: 
 
 general period of human history. The real explana- 
 tion of the likeness is that the Babylonian language 
 was the language of diplomacy like the French of 
 modern times. Ideas current in one part of the 
 ancient world were carried everywhere and in this 
 way Hebrew writers would learn the story. 
 
 Dr. Banks, in his The Bible and the Spade, explains 
 the connection between the two accounts as follows: 
 ‘Tt is often stated that the Hebrews borrowed the 
 story from the Babylonians, or that the Babylonians 
 borrowed it from the Hebrews, yet it can hardly be 
 said that one can borrow that which is one’s own. 
 Babylonia was the birthplace of the Hebrews; the 
 scenes of the first two thousand years of their his- 
 tory were along the Euphrates, and the stories of 
 the creation, of the Garden of Eden and of the 
 deluge, belonged to them as much as to the Baby- 
 lonians. The stories of King Alfred belong not only 
 to the English; they belong also to the English 
 colonists wherever they have gone. Thus Baby- 
 lonian history and literature, until the days of 
 Abraham, was the only history and literature the 
 Hebrews had. It is then not correct to say that the 
 Hebrews borrowed the story from the Babylonians; 
 it was the story of their own people, the story they 
 carried with them when they left their native land 
 to cross the desert.’’ 
 
 The differences are more important than the like- 
 nesses of the flood stories. The Scripture account 
 rises above the degrading polytheism of Babylonia, 
 whose angry gods caused the flood, and describes 
 the God of Heaven sorrowfully punishing a wicked 
 generation for the sake of the future good of the 
 race. The character of Noah is also an exalted one 
 
Dus BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 and found worthy of a place in that wonderful 
 gallery of pictures of men of faith in Hebrews 11. 
 The Bible record is far superior both morally and 
 religiously to the parallel record in Babylonia. 
 
 4, The Lesson Material. 
 
 These three accounts of the Flood ( J, P, and the 
 Babylonian) suggest many interesting lines of study. 
 It is important first of all for the student to note 
 the fundamental agreement in the thought of all 
 these writers. If one would prepare a table of the 
 parallels in the three narratives as follows it would 
 be instructive: 
 
 J uy Babylonian 
 Gen. 6:5-8 Gen. 6:9-13 Line 3 
 
 7:1-5 6:14-22 Lines 5-7 
 
 Tet (iia 13-15 
 
 7:22, 23 7:18-21 26, 27 
 
 8:20-22 9:16-17 39, 40 
 
 Another interesting fact is the new method of the 
 biblical authors at this point. The editor of Genesis 
 six to nine has interwoven verses from J and P and 
 has made a composite narrative. In the earlier 
 chapters the editor chose complete sections from J 
 and P, as we saw in the chapter on the Creation. 
 
 5. The Teachings of this Ancient Story. 
 
 (1) Evil works its own ruin. See Gen. 6:5. 
 
 (2) The worth of faith. Hebrews 11:7. 
 
 (3) Safety lies in obedience. Gen. 6:22. 
 
 (4) God’s willingness to give the race a new 
 start, Gens 116017) 
 
THE GREAT FLOOD 33 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 
 1. Make a table of the parallels among the three accounts of 
 the flood as suggested in Section 4, writing in your note- 
 books opposite the references the substance of the verses. 
 
 2. What is the best explanation of the repetitions in the Bible 
 story? 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 Are the likenesses between the Hebrew and Babylonian accounts 
 of the flood more numerous than the differences? Give ex- 
 amples. 
 
 Why are there any likenesses between the Hebrew and Baby- 
 
 lonian accounts? 
 
 Read aloud verses listed in Section 1, and see if they make a 
 
 connected story of the flood. 
 
 What is the best explanation of the loftier view of God and man 
 
 found in the Hebrew story? 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 Bring into the class accounts of the flood in other nations. 
 See Wild, A Literary Guide to the Bible, pp. 80-83, or an en- 
 cyclopedia. 
 
 Mention the cases of nations which have been destroyed because 
 of the wickedness of the people or of their leaders. 
 
Part 2 
 LITERARY SELECTIONS WITH A 
 PATRIARCHAL BACKGROUND 
 
 Chapter V 
 
 SKETCHES FROM THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM 
 
 The Migration of Abraham. Genesis 12:1-9. 
 
 The Peace Pact. Genesis 13:1-12. 
 
 The Flight of Hagar. Genesis 16:1-13. 
 
 The Name Abram Changed to Abraham. Genesis 17:1-16. 
 
 1. The New Stage in the Literature. 
 
 When we reach the twelfth chapter of Genesis we 
 enter a new literary field. Genesis 1 to 11 consisted 
 of primitive narratives based on ancient traditions 
 that dealt with the origin of the world and of man- 
 kind, while the Abraham stories and all the records 
 to the end of Genesis confine their attention to the 
 Hebrew race. These stories glorifying the begin- 
 nings of the Chosen People were told orally for a 
 long period before they were reduced to writing. 
 
 2. The Great Adventure of Abraham. 
 
 Ur of the Chaldees, where Abraham was born 
 nearly four thousand years ago, was even then a 
 very old city, as old as London now is. Recent 
 discoveries among the ruins of Ur enable us to imag- 
 ine quite fully the life of the boy who became the 
 founder of the Hebrew race. There were grand 
 temples built of brick, substantial houses, wholesale 
 and retail shops, business streets and wharves along 
 
 34 
 
SKETCHES FROM THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM SD 
 
 the canal where freight boats and passengers boats 
 made their calls at regular intervals. Outside the 
 city were fields and pastures. Abraham’s father 
 was the owner of some of these, and he was rich in 
 flocks and herds. 
 
 The boy’s future prospects were very bright, but 
 he was not contented to stay among the old familiar 
 scenes. An inner voice told him (12:1) that some- 
 thing awaited him in the great world beyond. With 
 his father he went from Ur to Haran, and from there 
 Abram pushed on to Palestine. He was not an old 
 man as one might think from the age given in 12:4. 
 The Bible reckons ages on a different basis from that 
 now in use, although scholars have not yet discov- 
 ered that basis. There is nothing to show that 
 human life was longer then than now, and Abraham 
 gives all the evidences of having been a young 
 man still. 
 
 Abraham’s call to a great service has many par- 
 allels in English literature. One of the best is Kip- 
 ling’s The Explorer. 
 
 Ts] a voice as bad as conscience, rang interminable changes 
 
 On one everlasting Whisper day and night repeated—so: 
 
 Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look behind 
 the ranges— 
 
 Something lost behind the ranges. Lost and waiting for 
 you. Go. 
 
 Then I knew, the while I doubted—knew His hand was cer- 
 tain o’er me. 
 
 Still—it might be self-delusion—scores of better men had 
 died— 
 
 I could reach the township living, but ..... He knows 
 what terrors tore me.... 
 
 But I didn’t .... but I didn’t .... I went down the 
 other side. 
 
 ‘Anybody might have found it, but His whisper came to me. 
 
36 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 3. The Peace Pact between Abraham and Lot. 
 
 Increasing wealth brought on trouble between the 
 uncle and his nephew. While comparatively poor | 
 they had lived in peace together, but with increas- 
 ing flocks and herds quarrels became common, and 
 finally it seemed wise to Abraham that a separation 
 should take place. When one reads this incident 
 he should observe the writer’s evident aim to call 
 attention to the generosity of Abraham and the 
 selfishness of Lot. He seems to take delight in 
 adding verse 13, which forbodes punishment for the 
 selfish Lot. 
 
 The meanness of Lot and the generosity of Abra- 
 ham had a great effect on their descendants. The 
 hilly and less fertile lands of Abraham developed — 
 a hardy race, and their descendants became the 
 founders of the Hebrew nation; while the easy 
 life in the plain and the proximity of Sodom with 
 its harmful pleasures ruined the family of Lot. It 
 is thought that the tribes of Ammon and Moab 
 descended from Lot, and that their inferiority both 
 in industry and morals resulted from their unfor- 
 tunate location. It may be hard to decide whether 
 environment is more influential than heredity, but 
 certainly in this case the biblical author is interested 
 in showing the power for evil of a bad environment. 
 
 4. The Flight of Hagar, Sarah’s Egyptian Slave-’ 
 girl. 
 
 According to the marriage customs of the East 
 a master could marry any one of his own female 
 slaves, but not a slave who happened to belong to 
 his wife. Now the wife of Abraham had a maid- 
 servant by the name of Hagar whom she urged 
 
SKETCHES FROM THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM 87 
 
 Abraham to marry in order that he might have a son 
 to perpetuate the family name, for Sarah had no 
 children. When Hagar became the mother of the 
 first-born son of Abraham, she showed her pride to 
 her mistress, and this made her offensive to Sarah. 
 Sarah made complaint to Abraham and he told 
 her to do what she liked with the servant. Sarah 
 then treated Hagar so harshly that she took her son 
 and fled into the desert toward her old Egyptian 
 home. 
 
 As Hagar rested by a spring in the desert, an angel 
 told her to return to her mistress and promised that 
 her son should become the ancestor of an unnum- 
 bered people. The Arabs today claim to be 
 descended from Ishmael, and the Mohammedan 
 religion sprang from that source. ‘‘Little did Sarah 
 think when she persuaded Abraham to take Hagar 
 that she was originating a rivalry which has run 
 with keenest animosity through all ages, which 
 oceans of blood have not quenched.”’ 
 
 5. The Name Abram changed to Abraham. 
 
 Marcus Dods in his valuable commentary on the 
 Book of Genesis (The Expositor’s Bible) suggests 
 that Abram was losing his high ideal for the future 
 when this new vision came to him reminding him 
 that he was a ‘“‘father of nations’’ and that Sarah 
 was a ‘‘princess,’’ and that she would bear a son 
 who should be his true heir. He writes: Abraham 
 ‘‘had learned to love the bold, brilliant, domineer- 
 ing boy (Ishmael). He saw how the men liked to 
 serve him and how proud they were of the young 
 chief....So that the reminder that he was not the 
 promised heir was not entirely welcome. ...He could 
 
38 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 not suppress the somewhat peevish exclamation: 
 Oh that Ishmael might serve thy turn!....Would 
 that what already exists in actual substance before 
 the eye might satisfy Thee and fulfil Thine intention 
 and supersede the necessity of further waiting!.... 
 Must I cut my moorings and launch again on this 
 ocean of faith with a horizon always receding and 
 that seems absolutely boundless?’?’ We now can 
 see what a loss it would have been to the world if 
 Abraham’s mission had been left for Ammon and 
 Moab rather than the Hebrew descendants of Isaac 
 and Jacob to fulfil. There is no certain explanation 
 of the different forms for the names Sarah and 
 Abraham, but the author uses the later forms of the 
 names to indicate a new stage of God’s revelation of 
 his purpose. 
 
 6. The Religious Meaning of Abraham’s Migration. 
 
 If we may judge from Abraham’s life after he 
 reached Palestine, it was a religious motive that led 
 him to leave the safety and comforts of his home- 
 land. Wherever he went he built altars and prayed. 
 He established a better type of religious life than 
 that to which he was accustomed in his youth, and 
 the world has felt the influence of the movement 
 which he inaugurated. Marcus Dods says of him: 
 ‘With Abraham there opens a new chapter in the 
 history of the race; a chapter of the profoundest 
 significance. The consequences of Abraham’s move- 
 ments and beliefs have been limitless and enduring. 
 All succeeding time has been influenced by him.’’ 
 
 It may not be too much to say that Abraham’s 
 family had the same motive that inspired the Pil- 
 grim Fathers, who left their native land to found 
 
SKETCHES FROM THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM ~~ 39 
 
 communities where men could worship God under 
 better conditions than obtained in the old world. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 
 1. The difference between Genesis 1-11 and the rest of the book. 
 2. Five or more facts about Ur of the Chaldees which have been 
 revealed by recent discoveries. 
 3. Name the places which Abraham visited in his migration. 
 * Genesis 11 : 31-138: 18. 
 4, Tell the story of Lot’s choice of the best lands according to 
 Genesis 18. What was the purpose of the author? 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 Is Kipling’s The Explorer a good parallel to the story of Abra- 
 ham’s migration? Why? 
 
 Are the Ishmaelites (Arabs) inferior to the Hebrews because of 
 their origin? 
 
 Three arguments in proof that Abraham was a religious man. 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 Report the number of times in the Old Testament in which God 
 is said to have revealed himself through angels. Look up the 
 word angel or angels in a concordance of the Bible. 
 
 Write a brief essay on the moral value of the struggle for life in 
 a country like Palestine or Scotland. Name some of the 
 great men that have been produced in Palestine and Scotland. 
 
Chapter VI 
 TWO CHAPTERS FROM THE LIFE OF ISAAC 
 
 The Offering of Isaac. Genesis 22:1-19. 
 An Oriental Courtship. Genesig 24. 
 
 1. Introduction. The Authorship and Certain Pecu- 
 liarities of the Oriental Setting of these Stories. 
 
 The name of the author who wrote the remarkable 
 story of the rescue of Isaac has been lost, but he is 
 known as the Elohist because he preferred the name 
 Elohim for God, and his designation in modern 
 books is E. He wrote in Ephraim or Northern 
 Israel after Elijah had done his great work, and 
 perhaps during the time of the activity of the pro- 
 phet Amos, about 750 B. C. He was greatly influ- 
 enced by the prophets toward higher ethical and 
 religious ideals than his predecessor, the historian 
 J, had shown. For example, J had written a hun- 
 dred years earlier the statement that Abraham had 
 told a lie (Genesis 12:13-18). HE explained that 
 Abraham had not really lied because Sarah was 
 indeed his sister, the daughter of Abraham’s father, 
 though not of his mother (Genesis 20:12). 
 
 So also in the story of the Offering of Isaac in 
 Genesis 22 the author E has for his main purpose 
 the correcting of a great error. The sacrifice of 
 human beings was a familiar form of religious wor- 
 ship amongst the neighbors of Israel (See 2 Kings 
 3:27). Even the Hebrews practised it to some 
 extent (Judges 11:39;2 Kings 16:3). Abraham evi- 
 
 40 
 
TWO CHAPTERS FROM THE LIFE OF ISAAC 41 
 
 dently came to believe it to be his duty to sacrifice 
 Isaac, but E states (Gen. 22:11) that a voice from 
 heaven forbade it. 
 
 The author of the courtship of Rebekah was J, 
 whose characteristics were discussed in Chapter 2. 
 Bewer says of him: ‘‘He is an acknowledged master 
 of story-tellers. His literary art is exquisite. Fresh, 
 lifelike, concrete, and graphic, the persons are 
 sketched with the sureness of a great artist, the 
 stories move swiftly and are full of interest. No 
 wonder that they have delighted the readers of 
 more than two milleniums.”’ 
 
 This story of an oriental courtship has for its 
 setting well-known customs of the nomads of the 
 desert: the seeking of a wife from a kindred tribe; 
 the confidence reposed in an old slave; and the 
 negotiations that led up to marriage. He who 
 studies these stories is not only adding to his relig- 
 ious and literary culture, but is also making him- 
 self at home in the ancient world, in other words, 
 becoming a citizen of the world. 
 
 2. The Story of the Offering of Isaac. 
 
 The dramatic skill of the writer appears in the 
 swiftness of movement and in the increasing inter- 
 est of each successive scene. Tell the story with 
 the following outline as a guide: 
 
 The startling command to Abraham, vv. 1, 2. 
 The solemn journey to Mt. Moriah, vv. 3, 4. 
 Preparations for the sacrifice of Isaac, vv. 5-10. 
 The voice from heaven, vv. 11-14. 
 
 The reward of Abraham’s obedience, vv. 15-19. 
 
 Study the narrative for examples of pathos, sim- 
 plicity, swiftness of movement, the lifelike sketch- 
 ing of persons, and the element of surprise. 
 
42 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 Greek literature has a parallel to this story in the 
 offering of Iphigenia by Agamemnon. To propiti- 
 ate the angry goddess Artemis, who had becalmed 
 the Greek fleet, Agamemnon was about to sacrifice 
 his beautiful daughter Iphigenia, when the goddess 
 unexpectedly substituted a doe as an acceptable 
 offering. 
 
 3. An Oriental Courtship. 
 
 An attractive method of presenting this story is 
 to arrange it in seven scenes as follows. 
 
 eene 1 
 The Servant’s Oath, Gen. 24:1-10 
 
 Place: Abraham’s tent in Hebron. 
 
 Characters: Abraham, aged and ill, lying upon a 
 couch of skins; the trusted servant, kneeling before 
 Abraham; several attendants, outside the tent door. 
 
 Abraham says: Swear that you will not take a 
 wife for Isaac from the Canaanites, but from my 
 own kindred in Haran. 
 
 Servant: What if the maiden will not return with 
 me to this land? 
 
 Abraham: Then you are free from the oath. But 
 God will send his angel before you. 
 
 (The servant sets forth with a caravan of ten 
 camels and attendant slaves to the valley of the 
 Euphrates. ) 
 
 Scene 2 
 The Meeting with Rebekah, 11-28 
 
 Place: The ancient well of Nahor, near the old 
 stone house of Laban, brother of Rebekah. 
 
TWO CHAPTERS FROM THE LIFE OF ISAAC 493 
 
 Characters: The trusted servant, standing be- 
 side his kneeling camels; Rebekah, the beautiful 
 young sister of Laban. 
 
 The servant speaks: Let me, I pray thee, drink 
 a little water from the pitcher. 
 
 Rebekah: Drink, my lord. For the camels also 
 IT will draw water from the well. 
 
 Servant: (presents Rebekah with gold earrings 
 and bracelets) Whose daughter are you? Is there 
 room in your father’s house for us to lodge tonight? 
 
 Rebekah: I am of the family of Nahor. We 
 have both straw and provender enough, and room 
 to lodge in. 
 
 Scene 3 
 Oriental Hospitality, 29-33 
 
 Place: The homestead of Nahor. 
 
 Characters: Laban, the servant, and Rebekah. 
 
 Laban: Come in, thou blessed of the Lord; 
 wherefore standest thou without? For I have pre- 
 pared the house, and room for the camels. (Laban 
 then pours water on the feet of his guest, and sets 
 food before him.) 
 
 Servant: I will not eat, until I have told mine 
 errand. 
 
 Scene 4 
 Marriage Negotiations, 34-54 
 
 Place: Dining room of the house. 
 Characters: The same as in Scene 3. 
 Servant: My master made me swear, saying, 
 
44 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 thou shalt go unto my father’s house and to my 
 kindred, and take a wife for my son. I covenanted 
 with Jehovah that he should show me the maiden 
 by the sign that she should give both me and my 
 camels water at the well. And before I had done 
 speaking in my heart behold Rebekah came. And 
 now, if you will give the maiden in marriage to my 
 master’s son, tell me. 
 
 Laban: The thing proceedeth from the Lord. 
 Behold Rebekah is before thee; take her and go. 
 (The dowry gifts are then presented, and a feast is 
 held.) 
 
 Scene 5 
 The Journey to Palestine, 55-61 
 
 Place: Caravan road from Haran to Hebron. 
 
 Characters: Mother of Rebekah, the trusted 
 servant and Rebekah. 
 
 Rebekah’s mother: Let Rebekah stay with us a 
 few days; after that she may go. 
 
 Servant: Make no delay; my master is old and 
 infirm; he may not live to see the bride. 
 
 The mother: We will ask Rebekah, and let her 
 decide. (To Rebekah) Wilt thou go with this 
 man? 
 
 Rebekah: I will go. 
 
 The family: (Gathered around for the farewell) 
 Blessed be thou, Rebekah, and be thou the mother of 
 thousands of ten thousands, and let thy seed possess 
 the gate of those which hate them. (Rebekah and 
 her nurse mount the camels and start with the 
 trusted servant on the long journey.) 
 
TwO CHAPTERS FROM THE LIFE OF ISAAC 49 
 Seene 6 
 Meeting of the Betrothed, 62-66 
 
 Place: A field at Beer-lahai-roi. (Abraham died 
 in the absence of the servant, and Isaac had moved 
 to the place named.) 
 
 Characters: Isaac, Rebekah and other members 
 of the caravan. 
 
 Rebekah: (Seeing a man dressed like a person 
 of importance walking toward them, she alighted 
 from the camel, thinking it probable that it was her 
 future husband.) What man is this that walketh in 
 the field to meet us? 
 
 The servant: It is my master Isaac. (Rebekah 
 puts on her veil, for Isaac must not see her face, 
 according to the custom of good society, until they 
 are man and wife.) 
 
 Scene 7 
 
 Place: The tent of Isaac’s mother 
 
 Characters: Rebekah, Isaac, and the trusted 
 servant. 
 
 (The servant reports to Isaac the success of his 
 mission. ) 
 
 The servant: God has prospered me according 
 to the prayer of thy father Abraham. 
 
 Isaac: Blessed be the Lord who has sent to me 
 Rebekah, one of our own kindred. 
 
 (Isaac takes Rebekah to the tent that had 
 belonged to Sarah, and she became his wife, and he 
 was comforted after his father’s death.) 
 
46 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 Who can see the green earth any more 
 As she was by the sources of time? 
 Who thinks as they thought, 
 
 The tribes who then roamed on her breast, 
 Her vigorous primitive sons? 
 
 What girl 
 
 Now reads in her bosom as clear 
 
 As Rebekah read when she sate 
 
 At eve by the palm-shaded well? 
 
 Who guards in her breast 
 
 As deep, as pellucid a spring 
 
 Of feeling, as tranquil, as sure? 
 
 —Matthew Arnold. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 
 1. Name two differences between J and BH, two of the original 
 authors on which Genesis was based. 
 
 2. Name four customs that form the background of the two 
 stories in this lesson. 
 
 3. Give examples of the literary qualities of pathos, simplicity, 
 swiftness of movement, the lifelike description of persons, 
 and the element of suprise in Genesis 22. 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 May a custom like human sacrifice, slavery, and drinking be 
 right for one generation and wrong for another? 
 
 Is Naas Arnold’s implied criticism of modern girlhood jus- 
 tified ? 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 Tell the story of Iphigenia, a parallel in Greek literature to 
 Genesis 22. 
 
 Assign Genesis 22 in advance to some member of the class, ask- 
 ing that the story be told as vividly as possible. 
 
 Let the class take the parts and read the wooing of Rebekah as 
 dramatized in the lesson, and consider the possibility of com- 
 pleting the scenes and presenting the drama on some forma! 
 occasion. 
 
Chapter VII 
 JACOB: A CHARACTER STUDY, PART 1 
 
 The Birth of the Twins. Genesis 25:19-26. 
 
 Jacob Buys the Birthright. Genesis 25:27-34. 
 
 ae s Scheme to Steal the Paternal Blessing. Genesis 
 721-29. 
 
 Esau’s Plea. Genesis 27:30-40. 
 
 Jacob’s Departure for the East. Genesis 27:41-28:9. 
 
 The Vision at Bethel. Genesis 28:10-22. 
 
 1. Introduction. 
 
 The cycles of stories connected with the names of 
 Jacob and Joseph fill nearly all the last half of Gene- 
 sis, more than twenty chapters. They are of so 
 great importance to students of literature and relig- 
 ion that four chapters of this book have been 
 devoted to them, and they should be studied thor- 
 oughly for three reasons. 
 
 First of all, these characters as they stand pic- 
 tured in the pages of the Bible are so human and 
 lifelike that one meets them in all the great litera- 
 tures of the world, and they are better known in 
 town and hamlet than many a modern statesman. 
 To be ignorant of these incidents is to cut off one’s 
 self from the appreciation of much fine literature, 
 and from an understanding of what is going on in 
 the minds of the common people. W. H. Bennett 
 writes as follows concerning these characters in the 
 New Century Bible: ‘‘Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph 
 are no mere shadowy visions, but familiar friends, 
 more real to many than the statesmen and generals 
 of our own day....The Patriarchs appeal to us, in- 
 terest and help us, because they are types of classes 
 
 47 
 
48 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 of men; their adventures... .still stand as vivid pic- 
 tures and symbols of crises in human life today.... 
 There have been many Jacobs, who have, so to speak, 
 stumbled into the Divine Presence, when their only 
 thought was of headlong flight from the conse- 
 quences of weakness, folly, and sin; many Josephs, 
 too, who have found in humiliating ruin the ap- 
 pointed pathway to honourable service....It is the 
 human, the representative character of these nar- 
 ratives that has preserved them, and procured for 
 them a place in Scripture.’’ 
 
 Second, these narratives should be studied as pure 
 literature. In many respects they are unsurpassed 
 in the writings of the world. Gardiner (The Bible 
 as English Interature, pp. 34, 35) says: ‘‘ All the 
 narrative of the Bible shows a combination of two 
 sets of qualities: on the one hand it has a simplicity 
 and a limpid and vivid clearness which make it ap- 
 peal to all sorts and conditions of men; on the other 
 hand through its whole range it has an under-cur- 
 rent of strong feeling....For swiftness, for the un- 
 erring sense of effective detail, these stories are our 
 standard in English.”” One who reads and re-reads 
 these narratives may come to appreciate as Ruskin 
 and Lincoln did the ‘‘grand style’’ of the Bible, 
 and may possibly acquire a better literary style of 
 his own. 
 
 In the third place, the moral value of these 
 descriptions is very high. The prophetic historians 
 J and E knew the value of the story in religious edu- 
 cation; and while in these stories there are elements 
 that belong to a lower stage of development than 
 that to which we have attained, yet they so power- 
 fully picture the sorrows of sin and the rewards of 
 
 a 
 
JACOB: A CHARACTER STUDY 49 
 
 virtue that they still hold their place in the field of 
 education. 
 
 2. The Lesson Material. 
 
 The six incidents listed at the head of this chap- 
 ter should be studied both as separate units and as 
 a connected series, for each is an interesting story 
 in itself, and there is also a logical connection run- 
 ning through them all. 
 
 One sure method of mastering this material is to 
 write a brief paraphrase of each incident, keeping 
 in mind all the time the great difference between 
 Esau and Jacob. ‘‘The first was born, all over like 
 a hairy garment, presenting the appearance of being 
 rolled up in a fur cloak or the skin of an animal.... 
 when their son appeared in this guise the parents 
 could not but fear that it prognosticated his sensual, 
 - animal career. So they called him Esau. And so 
 did the younger son from the first show his nature, 
 catching the heel of his brother, as if he were striv- 
 ing to be firstborn.’’ 
 
 An example of what a student might write in his 
 notebook as a paraphrase of Genesis 25:27-34 is 
 given at this point as a suggestion to be followed in 
 treating the other incidents in the life of Jacob. 
 While Jacob is stirring a pot of lentil stew over 
 the fire, Esau comes wearily in. He has been long 
 hours in the open in a vain hunt for game, and he 
 is very hungry. Sniffing the tempting soup he 
 begs, Let me eat some of that red stew for I am 
 faint. But Jacob said, First sell me your birth- 
 right. Esau replied, I am ready to die of faintness, 
 so of what use will the birthright be to me. Swear 
 to me, said Jacob, that for this mess of pottage you 
 
50 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 will sell me the birthright. Esau made the required 
 oath, and so sold his privilege as eldest son, and then 
 ate his fill of bread and stew, careless of the future. 
 
 3. Explanatory Notes. 
 
 The name Jacob means ‘‘heel-holder,’’ and is in- 
 terpreted in Gen. 27:36 to mean one who tries to 
 supplant another. 
 
 Esau is a play on the Hebrew word ‘‘hairy.’’ The 
 Greek word Esau means profane. ‘‘Esau was a pro- 
 fane person, an open and bare character, unfenced 
 and unhallowed, no guardian angels at the doors.’’ 
 
 The law of the birthright is given in Deut. 21:15- 
 17. By it the oldest son became the head of the 
 family and had the largest share of the property. 
 A parallel to the biblical incident of the birthright 
 is the sale of a birthright in Arabia, in the city of 
 Mecea. A descendant of Ishmael sold for a bottle 
 of wine the keys to the temple at Mecca, and with 
 them guardianship of the temple, which had been 
 his by right of birth. 
 
 Two views of Rebekah. ‘‘A selfish, ambitious, 
 woman playing her favorite son with meanest decep- 
 tion against her older child and against her blind 
 and aged husband.’’ 
 
 She was a bright, forward, far-seeing mother who 
 knew that Jacob would be a better head of the 
 family and of the tribe in days to come, and took 
 what seemed to her the necessary means to bring 
 about the desired end. She did wrong and was 
 punished for it, but she meant well. 
 
 Genesis 27:36 harmonzes the apparent inconsist- 
 ency of using two explanations of the way in which 
 the younger brother obtained the birthright. The 
 
JACOB: A CHARACTER STUDY SL 
 
 two stories originally circulated independently and 
 were so interesting that both were preserved when 
 -Genesis was compiled. 
 
 4, The Religious Meaning of the Vision at Bethel. 
 
 On his lonely way to exile in the east the fugi- 
 tive stayed over night at Bethel, where the peculiar 
 formation of the rocks evidently suggested the 
 ‘ladder’? in his dream. He saw a flight of steps 
 leading to heaven, and angels ascending and de- 
 scending, and at the top was God looking down on 
 the young man, who was so capable of doing wrong 
 and yet so capable of lofty religious visions. None 
 so lonely, none so sinful that God cannot be near to 
 
 fan 
 sks ‘‘The drift of pinions, would we hearken, 
 Beats at our own clay-shuttered doors. 
 
 The angels keep their ancient places:— 
 Turn but a stone, and start a wing.’’ 
 
 Does the fact that the angels first ‘‘ascended,”’ 
 according to the story, indicate that the divine help 
 is always by our side, and that we need not call aloud 
 to Heaven to send down merey from above? 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 Written Work 
 
 1. Three reasons why the stories of Jacob and Joseph should be 
 thoroughly studied. 
 
 2. What combination of two sets of qualities gives the Bible 
 great literary power? 
 
 3. Connect the six incidents, listed at the head of this chapter, 
 into a readable plot. 
 
 4, Explain the law of the birthright. 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 Defend the character of Rebekah. 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 The lesson of Jacob’s ladder. Put the story of Jacob’s ladder 
 into verse. 
 
Chapter VIII 
 JACOB: A CHARACTER STUDY, PART 2 
 
 The meeting of Jacob and Rachel. Genesis 29:1-14. 
 Jacob deceived by Laban. Genesis 29:15-30. 
 
 Laban deceived by Jacob. Genesis 30:25-43. 
 
 The flight from Haran. Genesis 31:1-21. 
 
 The truce at Mizpah. Genesis 31:22-55. 
 
 The struggle at the Jabbok. Genesis 32 33-32. 
 Jacob and Esau reconciled. Genesis 33:1-17. 
 
 1, The Change of Scene in Jacob’s Life. 
 
 Jacob spent his early years in the vicinity of 
 Hebron in the south of Palestine. His mother, 
 doubtless, had often told him of her old home in 
 Haran in Mesopotamia, and perhaps had described 
 the old family well where she had offered hospitali- 
 ty to the trusted servant of Abraham, and had 
 watered his camels. It wag this well and the old 
 stone house on the hill above, where his mother had 
 lived as a girl, that made Haran seem a friendly 
 shelter after his long journey from the South. 
 
 Here he finds Rachel, here Joseph is born, and here 
 also he gains wealth. After a period of twenty 
 years or so he becomes dissatisfied with DLaban’s 
 treatment of him and decides to return to Palestine. 
 After many strange experiences he returns and is 
 reconciled with Esau. 
 
 2. The Lesson Material. 
 
 The task of learning to tell these stories will not 
 seem difficult to those who adopt the following plan: 
 (1) Find the chief point of interest in each of the 
 
 52 
 
JACOB: A CHARACTER STUDY 53 
 
 seven incidents. In the first, it is perhaps the love- 
 scene between Rachel and Jacob. In the second, 
 it is the curious oriental custom of marriage. In 
 the third, it might be Jacob’s success in outwitting 
 the shrewd and selfish Laban. We may enjoy 
 Jacob’s victory, although we cannot approve of 
 his methods. In the fourth the sudden flight of 
 Jacob with all his possessions after twenty years of 
 work on Laban’s estate, without saying anything 
 about it to Laban, awakens the curiosity of the 
 reader. The scene at Mizpah gave rise to the mod- 
 ern ‘‘Mizpah Benediction,’’ but the scene itself was 
 anything but devotional. The struggle at the Jab- 
 bok is the most dramatic of the incidents, because of 
 the all-night struggle with the angel; and the recon- 
 ciliation between the brothers after twenty years 
 of absence has its own appeal to the reader. 
 
 (2) The teacher and the class should together 
 work out a brief analysis of each of the stories, and 
 the analysis should be written in the notebooks for 
 later use. The usefulness of the analysis will be in- 
 creased if it is brief and suggestive of the pictures 
 in the story. The following example may be help- 
 ful. The first narrative, 29:1-14, naturally divides 
 itself into the following sections: 
 
 The wayworn traveller reaches the historic well and sees 
 flocks lying around it, 1-3. 
 
 His conversation with the shepherds, 4-9. 
 
 Love at first sight, 10-12. 
 
 Jacob made welcome in the house of Laban, 13, 14. 
 
 (3) Find a good or bad characteristic of Jacob 
 
 in each of the seven incidents. 
 
 3. The problem of Jacob’s character. 
 Hutchins, in his Religious Experience of Israel, is 
 
54 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 too critical of Jacob. He describes him ag utterly 
 unscrupulous as a son; as a brother, he takes advan- 
 tage of the weakness of Esau and is utterly selfish; 
 as an employee, he is no more attractive, being very 
 crafty and skilful in cheating. This author ig also 
 skeptical regarding the sincerity of Jacob in reli- 
 ion. He says of him, frightened by Esau’s ap- 
 proach, ‘‘The mean little supplanter cannot cheat 
 God. No trick will serve him now.”’’ 
 
 This estimate of Jacob fails to.take into consid- 
 eration that his mother was responsible for his early 
 disloyalty to his father and brother. History and 
 the New Testament have placed a higher value on 
 Jacob’s life. The New Testament gives him a place 
 among the heroes of the faith in Hebrews 11, and his 
 place in history as the father of the twelve tribes of 
 Israel is secure. There must be elements, then, in 
 his character worthy of imitation. He denied him- 
 self immediate pleasures for the sake of a larger 
 good in the future; he early had a religious experi- 
 ence which showed a nature capable of lofty ideals; 
 his love for Rachel and faithfulness to her reveal a 
 good heart; his patience and persistence were wor- 
 thy of the reward which he obtained. 
 
 It is only fair to remember that Jacob lived near- 
 ly four thousand years ago and that he should be 
 judged by the standards of his own time. His sharp 
 bargain with Laban, his failure to bid him good-bye 
 after twenty years of service with him, and many 
 other faults and sins in his life were much more 
 common at that time than now. Jacob’s deep relig- 
 lous experience at the Jabbok and his reconciliation 
 with Esau show him to have had real depth of char- 
 acter. 
 
JACOB: A CHARACTER STUDY 55 
 
 It should not be a matter of surprise that there are 
 two natures in a man like Jacob. There is a Doctor 
 Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in almost every person, and 
 the evil in us is always striving for supremacy over 
 the good. It is probable that if we had insight 
 enough we should see Jacobs all around us today. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 
 1. Make a list of the places of Jacob’s travels. 
 
 2. The chief point of interest in each of the seven incidents 
 named at the head of the chapter. 
 
 3. Explain the meaning of the struggle at the Jabbok. 
 
 4. Name a good or a bad quality in the character of Jacob in each 
 of the seven incidents at the head of this chapter. 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 Was Jacob a coward in the experience recorded in Genesis 
 33 :1-17? 
 Give reasons for your answer. 
 Why does history give Jacob such a high place? 
 
 Discuss the question whether an ancient character like Jacob 
 should be judged by the same standards by which a modern 
 man is estimated. 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 Write an outline of the scene of the meeting of Jacob and Rachel. 
 
 Tell the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Does it apply to 
 Jacob? Give reasons for your answer. 
 
Chapter IX 
 THE BIOGRAPHY OF JOSEPH, PART 1 
 
 The egotistical boy in Hebron. Genesis 37:1-11. 
 
 Joseph in the pit at Dothan. Genesis 37:12-24. 
 
 Joseph sold as a slave. Genesis 37:25-36. 
 
 Rapid promotion in Potiphar’s service. Genesis 39:1-6. 
 
 Resists temptation and is thrown into prison. Genesis 
 39: 7-20. 
 
 An optimist in prison. Genesis 39:21-40:23. 
 
 Excels the magicians of Egypt. Genesis 41:1-36. 
 
 Made prime minister. Genesis 41:37-57. 
 
 Forgives his brothers. Genesis chs. 42-44. 
 
 Loyal to his family. Genesis chs. 45-47. 
 
 1, Introduction. More Biography and Less Fic- 
 tion. 
 
 In a day when fiction, and to a large extent fic- 
 tion not worthy to read, fills our libraries, we need 
 to be reminded that life’s best lessons come from 
 biography. : 
 
 ‘‘Lives of great men all remind us 
 We can make our lives sublime.’’ 
 
 Hagedorn’s Life of Roosevelt and Palmer’s Life 
 of Alice Freeman Palmer are examples of fascinat- 
 ing books that have stirred the ambition of many a 
 boy and girl. When the advice of parents and 
 teachers falls on dull ears, a book like Mary Antin’s 
 Promised Land or Franklin’s Autobiography may 
 awaken youth to the great interests of life. 
 
 It has been said that the four greatest biographies 
 in English are Boswell’s Life of Johnson, Lockhart’s 
 Infe of Scott, Trevelyan’s Life of Macaulay, and 
 Franklin’s Autobiography. While the biography of 
 
 56 
 
THE BIOGRAPHY OF JOSEPH aif 
 
 Joseph in Genesis is very brief, yet it is ‘‘unequalled 
 in any literature sacred or profane, in ancient or 
 - modern times, for its simplicity, its pathos, its dra- 
 matic power, and its sustained interest.’’ When 
 you add to that the fact that Joseph is the ideal char- 
 acter of the Old Testament, a dreamer who made 
 his dreams come true, with an experience rich in 
 exploits, you have material of the greatest value in 
 religious education. 
 
 2. The Egyptian Background. 
 
 The scene of the story in ancient Egypt is strange 
 and exciting enough to be worthy of a place 
 in The Arabian Nights. The events of Joseph’s 
 life fall in that period of revolution when the 
 Hyksos or the Shepherd tribes invaded Egypt 
 and took possession of the government. The beau- 
 tiful palaces and temples were taken over from the 
 proud rulers of the Nile valley by these Asiatics 
 who were akin to Joseph. This explains how he 
 could become prime minister and marry the 
 daughter of the high priest. Such a book as the 
 Spell of Egypt by Robert Hichens, with its pictures 
 and vivid descriptions, is helpful to the student as 
 he tries to go back in imagination to that ancient 
 time. Whatever one may think concerning the ver- 
 bal accuracy of the incident, the fact remains that 
 the biblical account of Joseph’s career admirably 
 fits into the conditions in Egypt in those days. For 
 example, the description of Joseph’s experience in 
 Potiphar’s house is true to the life of the times as 
 is proven by a parallel Egyptian story entitled, 
 ‘The Tale of the Two Brothers.’’ 
 
58 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 3. A Rapid Survey of the Career of Joseph. 
 
 The best approach to this subject is made by a 
 rapid reading of the whole story by the outline at 
 the head of this chapter. We first see a boy about 
 seventeen years old playing among his father’s tents 
 in Hebron. He is a dreamer and a family favorite, 
 and consequently becomes very unpopular with his 
 brothers. No doubt he had been so sheltered from 
 the hard experiences of life that he had become 
 rather priggish. 
 
 The author next shows how the self-conceit was 
 taken out of him by a series of remarkable experi- 
 ences. He is sent sixty miles from home on an er- 
 rand to his brothers in Dothan. They throw him 
 into a dry well and leave him to die. But one of 
 the brothers, relenting, pulls him out and sells him 
 as a Slave to a caravan of traders. After a hard trip 
 of several hundred miles on foot to the Nile delta, 
 he is sold to become a servant in Potiphar’s house. 
 Before long, through no fault of his own, he is 
 thrown into prison. The prison is the turning point 
 in his career. From that he goes out to become 
 prime minister of one of the greatest nations on 
 earth, rides in a golden chariot, marries the daugh- 
 ter of the high priest of the realm, and becomes the 
 savior of his people. : 
 
 4, Joseph’s Religion. 
 
 Joseph’s spotless personal life and noble career 
 were due, according to the story, to a lofty faith in 
 God. Hutchins, in his The Religious Experience 
 of Israel has said: ‘‘A man’s whole life igs deter- 
 mined by the God he worships. Joseph’s life is 
 
THE BIOGRAPHY OF JOSEPH 59 
 
 pictured as dominated by a holy, uneseapable God. 
 Far from home, in the land of alien deities, whom 
 - his contemporaries certainly regarded as alive and 
 powerful; a slave, presumably bereft of his God 
 who ruled alone in Canaan; this man cries: ‘How 
 can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?’ 
 In prison, he realizes that his God is with him. In 
 his dream-telling, he thinks of God as revealer. ‘Do 
 not interpretations belong to God?....God will give 
 Pharaoh an answer of peace.’ Joseph’s God, more- 
 over, is master of events. In a very fine passage 
 we hear Joseph say to his brothers: ‘As for you, ye 
 meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, 
 to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much peo- 
 ple alive.’ Gen. 50:20. Ever his God stands ‘with- 
 in the shadow, keeping watch above his own.’ ”’ 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 
 1. Compare the life of Joseph with modern books of biography. 
 2. What was the Egyptian background of Joseph’s life? 
 
 3. What element in Joseph’s character contributed most to his 
 success? Give examples of this from three or more scenes 
 in his career. 
 
 4. Name two evidences that Joseph was a religious man. 
 Oral Discussion 
 Prepare slips containing the topics at the head of the chapter, 
 and let the pupils draw and speak on these topics. 
 Special Assignments 
 
 Write a list of the use of dreams as a revelation from God in the 
 Old Testament. 
 
Chapter X 
 THE BIOGRAPHY OF JOSEPH, PART 2 
 
 Pharaoh’s dream. Genesis 41:1-36. 
 
 The ten brothers before the governor. Genesis 42:1-26. 
 The hidden cup. Genesis 44:1-17. 
 
 Judah’s plea. Genesis 44:18-34. 
 
 Joseph reveals hig identity. Genesis 45:1-15. 
 
 Joseph forgives his brothers. Genesis 50:14-21. 
 
 1. Some Literary Values of this Biography. 
 
 As we turn from the general outline of the story 
 of Joseph, which occupied our attention in the last 
 chapter, to a study of particular features of the nar- 
 rative, exchanging the telescope for the microscope, 
 we have an experience comparable to that of the 
 student of forestry when he puts a cross section of 
 a tree under the microscope. The forest in general 
 was interesting, but the section of wood minutely 
 studied reveals rare and unexpected wonders of 
 form and color. So the particular scenes in the life 
 of Joseph when carefully studied, show remarkable 
 beauty of form and thought. 
 
 Hutchins declares that ‘‘the vividness of the por- 
 traiture can scarcely be matched in literature.’’ 
 William Lyon Phelps says of one of these little 
 scenes (Judah’s plea), ‘‘There is no recognition 
 scene in Greek drama finer than this.’’ Julius A. 
 Bewer describes the extraordinarily fine grouping 
 of the incidents into a unified picture, and asserts 
 that the whole ‘‘is a well-knit novel, finely con- 
 
 ceived and worked out.’’ George Matheson, in his 
 60 
 
THE BIOGRAPHY OF JOSEPH 61 
 
 Representative Men of the Bible, writes concerning 
 the relation of the parts to the whole: ‘‘Those who 
 
 * are conversant with music tell us that each of 
 
 Chopin’s Preludes has three parts, which embody a 
 distinct sequence. In the first, the melody is free 
 and unrestrained. In the second, it seems to move 
 through tangled places—to be impeded in its way by 
 the intervention of resisting elements. But in the 
 third, the melody comes out into the open once more; 
 the tangles vanish, the impediments are removed, and 
 the notes of the first part reappear in a new connec- 
 tion and with a fresh power. Now, this is precisely 
 the music which I find in the life of Joseph.’’ 
 
 2. Suggestions for the Study of a Particular Scene. 
 
 The story of Joseph ‘‘has woven itself into the 
 fabric of the thought and literature of the world”’ 
 so completely that one can hardly afford to be ig- 
 norant of any of the incidents in the biblical narra- 
 tive. But intimate knowledge of such a work of 
 literary art comes only from an intensive study of 
 its parts. For example, one will be rewarded, if 
 he gives hours to the study of the ten brothers in the 
 presence of the governor, Genesis 42 :1-26. 
 
 First, one should try to visualize the setting of 
 the incident. As the humble and plainly-dressed 
 shepherds reach the capital of Egypt, they are im- 
 pressed by the elaborate stone buildings that sur- 
 round the beautiful palace of the Pharaoh, for the 
 treasury department of the government of Egypt 
 in its most prosperous days had a host of clerks 
 and many spacious rooms. When the shepherds are 
 finally admitted to the presence of the governor, 
 whom they do not recognize as their own brother, 
 
62 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 they bow their faces to the earth. The governor 
 makes himself strange to them and speaks roughly. 
 He throws them into prison for three days, then 
 calls them back to the office and orders them to 
 bring their youngest brother to him. At this their 
 consciences trouble them and, thinking that Joseph 
 cannot understand their language for he has always 
 spoken to them through an interpreter, they speak 
 to one another about their sin against Joseph, whom 
 they think dead. When Joseph hears this, he can 
 restrain himself no longer, but goes away by himself 
 and weeps. 
 
 Again, consider the simplicity and earnestness of 
 the style. The words are short, and there is not 
 an involved sentence. There is scarcely an adjec- 
 tive in the whole narrative, and certainly no rhet- 
 orical additions. The action moves rapidly toward 
 the end, and the words and phrases are so chosen 
 that a feeling of sincerity and earnestness fills the 
 mind of the reader. 
 
 The art of the writer is seen, also, in the figures 
 of speech which he employs. In this incident the 
 element of suspense is most important, for Joseph 
 with difficulty conceals his emotions and his identi- 
 ty is likely to be discovered at any time. By the 
 use of the dialogue, also, the effect of the descrip- 
 tion is heightened. A further device is seen in the 
 introduction of numerous crises with dramatic ac- 
 tion, like the abrupt departure of Joseph that he 
 may shed tears in private. 
 
 Judah’s plea is said to contain some of the finest 
 English in our language. One curious feature of it 
 is the use of many monosyllabic words. It is very 
 strong, also, in the element of pathos. But time 
 
THE BIOGRAPHY OF JOSEPH 63 
 
 would fail us if we should undertake to treat fully 
 all the incidents. 
 
 3. Joseph’s Philosophy of Life. 
 
 This story is cheerful because it hag a good end, 
 but its chief attraction is not that it ‘‘culminates 
 in brightness, but that the brightness is found to 
 have been produced by the actual clouds of the 
 narrative. This is, I think, a point in which the 
 portrait of Joseph is unique among Old Testa- 
 ment figures. You will find any number of narra- 
 tives that wind up with the prosperity of their 
 heroes; but I cannot at present recall another in 
 which the trial is found to be a part of the prosperity. 
 Noah emerges from the flood into the sunshine; but. 
 the flood remains a calamity still. Daniel is saved 
 from the lions; but he is saved by the allaying of 
 their fury. Job gets back his possessions; but he 
 gets them back as a reversal of his adverse circum- 
 stances. The case of Joseph is very different. His 
 peculiarity is not that he rises to a pinnacle of earthly 
 splendour; most of the Old Testament figures do that. 
 It is that his splendour has come out of his dungeon. 
 We are made to see, to feel, that he would never have 
 been on the pinnacle at all if it had not been for his 
 misfortunes in the valley, that his sunshine has come 
 from his suffering, that the avenue of shade has led 
 him to the palace of light.’? (Matheson) Joseph was 
 an optimist. 
 
 His philosophy of life involved a lofty view of God. 
 When we recall that this narrative was written not 
 later than 700 years before Christ, we are amazed 
 that it grasps a conception of God that is internation- 
 al and ethical (39:9; 50:20), for other peoples still 
 
64 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 believed in petty national deities with low standards 
 of moral life. 
 
 The scene in which Joseph as a high official in the 
 Ligyptian empire forgives his lowly brothers who had 
 been so cruel to him is hardly to be matched in the 
 ancient world.. And, as a matter of fact, in the 
 modern world such forgiving love is rare. This alone 
 suffices to give the biography of Joseph great dis- 
 tinction. And the reason which he gives for making 
 love supreme in life compels us to hold Joseph in 
 very high esteem because he associates his personal 
 attitude with the providence of God in history, ‘‘ You 
 meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, 
 to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people 
 alive,’’ (50:20) 
 
 Joseph’s preparation to meet the unexpected op- 
 portunities of life suggests the duty of keeping the 
 ‘‘muscles trained.’? Who would have thought that 
 the Hebrew boy who washed the front steps of Poti- 
 phar’s palace, and served as a ‘‘trusty’’ in an Egyp- 
 tian prison, would become prime minister of one of 
 the two greatest nations on earth and the saviour of 
 his race? So, in our philosophy of life, we must not 
 underestimate the little things, remembering Lowell’s 
 advice: 
 
 ‘*TIn life’s small things be resolute and great, 
 
 To keep thy muscles trained; know’st thou when Fate 
 
 Thy measure takes? or when she’ll say to thee, 
 ‘I find thee worthy, do this thing for me?’ ”’ 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 
 1. Show the logical sequence in the events of Joseph’s life, using 
 the outlines at the head of Chapters IX and X. For ex- 
 ample: His actions as a spoiled child antagonized his 
 brothers and resulted in his being thrown into the pit. 
 
THE BIOGRAPHY OF JOSEPH 65 
 
 2. Give examples from the study of Judah’s plea to show that 
 there is no scene in Greek drama finer than this. See the 
 statement of Phelps, p. 60. 
 
 3. Name three or more elements in Joseph’s philosophy of life. 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 By selecting the main points in Genesis 42: 1-50: 21 make an 
 outline of a connected dramatic story. 
 
 Would it have been better if Joseph had punished his brothers 
 for their old offense against him? 
 
 Was Joseph a self-made man? 
 
 How did Joseph mentally and morally keep his ‘muscles 
 trained’’? 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 From the lives of two or more American statesmen give incidents 
 which show that unexpected opportunities came to them who 
 used the powers which they had developed under hardships. 
 
 If possible, add to the following evidences that the story of 
 Joseph is true to the life of ancient times in Egypt an inscrip- 
 tion of seven years of famine on a rock in Egypt; a letter 
 written in Egypt stating that a man by the name of Joseph 
 was the ruler; a tablet referring to an Asiatic who had control 
 of the stores of corn in Egypt. 
 
Part 3 
 
 LITERARY SELECTIONS WITH THE 
 BEGINNINGS OF THE NATIONAL HISTORY 
 FOR A BACKGROUND 
 
 Chapter XI 
 
 THE ROMANCE OF MOSES’ MISSION 
 
 Rescue and adoption of the babe. Exodus 2:1-10. 
 
 His sacrifice for his people. Exodus 2:11-15. 
 
 The influence of the Midian experiences. Exodus 2:16-22. 
 The vision of the burning bush. Exodus 2:22-3:10. 
 Moses feels unequal to the task. Exodus 3:10-16. 
 
 Aaron’s part in the great mission. Exodus 4:10-16. 
 Dialogue between Moses and the Pharaoh. Exodus 5:1-14. 
 
 1. Parallels to the Story of Moses. 
 
 Many nations have glorified their founders in 
 song and story. The Babylonians told a famous 
 story concerning Sargon, the Persians concerning 
 the Elder Cyrus, and the Romans concerning Rom- 
 ulus and Remus. According to Herodotus, the El- 
 der Cyrus was ordered by the king of the Medes to 
 be exposed and left to die, but the herdsman who 
 should have carried out the king’s orders preserved. 
 the child’s life and brought him up as his gon. 
 Later, Cyrus became king and deposed the cruel 
 tyrant. 
 
 The Babylonian story is a closer parallel to the 
 story of Moses. It runs as follows: 
 
 I am Sargon, the mighty king, the king of Akkad. My 
 
 mother was of lowly birth; my father I knew not, but my 
 66 
 
THE ROMANCE OF MOSES’ MISSION 67 
 
 father’s brother dwelt in the mountains. The city of 
 Azupiranu, on the shore of the Euphrates, was my home, 
 My lowly mother conceived me; in secret she gave me 
 
 : birth; she placed me in a basket of reeds and sealed its 
 cover with bitumen; she laid me in the river, but the 
 river did not drown me. The river bore me along; it 
 earried me to Akki the irrigator. Akki the irrigator 
 rescued me; Akki the irrigator adopted me as his own 
 son; Akki the irrigator made me his gardener, and the 
 goddess Ishtar favoredyme....... Four years I ruled 
 the country. 
 
 The romance of Moses surpasses all these literary 
 parallels both in the historical importance of the 
 character and the literary form of the narrative. 
 
 2. The New Era in History and Literature. 
 
 In studying the evolution of any great lterature 
 we need to keep in mind the experiences of the 
 people whose life the literature describes. We have 
 now reached the third stage of Old Testament liter- 
 ature. The first stage had for its background the 
 primitive history before Abraham; the second stage 
 was the patriarchal period and had the lives of Abra- 
 ham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph for a background. 
 From neither of these first two stages has any writ- 
 ten document been handed down to us. It is prac- 
 tically certain that such fascinating stories as The 
 Fall of Man, The Flood, Jacob and Esau, and Joseph 
 floated down from the past in the form of oral trad- 
 itions and were first put into writing after the time 
 of David. 
 
 The third stage brings us nearer to the region of 
 authentic history. It covers the life of Israel from 
 Moses to the entrance into the Promised Land, in 
 round numbers from 1220 to 1160 B. C. Many gen- 
 erations have passed away since Joseph was prime 
 
68 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 minister of Egypt. A new king has come to the 
 Egyptian throne and Joseph has been forgotten. 
 The foreign shepherd or Hyksos kings, who wel- 
 comed the Israelites to Egypt, have been driven 
 from the country. Ramses II (1292-1225, B. C.) 
 has come to the throne and is oppressing the 
 Hebrews. It was he who commanded that the baby 
 boys of the Israelites be drowned in the river, who 
 oppressed the Israelites by forcing them to labor as 
 Slaves, and probably it was he who suffered from 
 the plagues that Moses and Aaron brought on the 
 country. He died in 1220 B. C. and his body was 
 so carefully embalmed and buried in a tomb at 
 Deir el-Bahri that, when in 1881 A. D. the tomb was 
 opened and the winding cloths cut away from the 
 body, it was found to be perfectly preserved. 
 ‘There in a secret place, beneath a rocky cliff in 
 upper Egypt, safe from the ancient grave robbers 
 and far from the tomb built for him, he had 
 been hiding all these thousands of years.’? (See 
 Banks—The Bible and the Spade, pp. 68-71) 
 
 The records of these events in Egypt and of the 
 adventures of the Hebrews from the time of their 
 escape from bondage until they reached the land 
 of Moab were written up by three Hebrew histori- 
 ans whom for convenience we have learned to eall 
 J, E, and P. The whole world of scholarship has 
 adopted these terms and students should become 
 familiar with them early in their course of study. 
 J stands for the Jehovist or Jahwist, a writer in 
 Judah, about 850 B. C., who prefers the name Jeho- 
 vah, when speaking of the Deity, and is the most 
 vivid and picturesque of all the Hebrew historians; 
 E stands for the Elohist, a writer in northern Israel, 
 
THE ROMANCE OF MOSES’ MISSION 69 
 
 about 750 B. C., who prefers the term ’H lohim (God) 
 for the Deity, and is less brilliant in style than J, 
 and gives prominence to places in northern Israel; 
 P stands for the priestly writer, about 500 B. C., 
 who is chiefly interested in the Temple and the religi- 
 ous ceremonies of the people. 
 
 How many writings of Moses these authors found 
 to their hand we have no means of knowing. That 
 Moses did not write the account of his own death is 
 evident, although the Jews at a later day did not 
 hesitate to give him credit even for that. But the 
 differences in style and the apparent contradiction in 
 thought in many parts of the Pentateuch prevent our 
 accepting the theory that Moses wrote the first five 
 books of the Bible. J, E, and P may have found 
 lists of places made by Moses, and perhaps some laws 
 such as we find in Exodus 34, and other written 
 memorials of the distant past. They, each in his 
 -own way, wrote up the whole history of Israel to 
 their own time. In later years these three histories 
 were combined to form our present early books of 
 the Bible. This explains the two accounts of crea- 
 tion, the two accounts of the flood, and many dupli- 
 cates and inconsistencies in the narrative. 
 
 3. Seven Episodes in the Career of Moses. 
 
 These episodes are among the best known stories 
 of the Bible, and need no comment and almost no 
 explanation. The most enjoyable way of studying 
 them is as follows: Prepare a brief statement of the 
 setting of each episode, somewhat as a public reader 
 outlines the circumstances of the story which he is 
 going to tell. The material for this is to be found in 
 Exodus in each case preceding the episode. Then, 
 
70 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 with a clear outline of the incident in mind, describe 
 the episode as vividly as possible. In the third place, 
 show how romantic the whole life of Moses was by 
 connecting the episode you have studied with the 
 other adventures in his life. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 
 1. The three stages in the development of Old Testament lit- 
 erature. 
 
 2. A parallel to the story of Moses, and the likenesses and dif- 
 ferences. 
 
 3. Give in your own words one of the episodes in the career of 
 Moses, with the historical setting. 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 What are the four chief claims of Moses to greatness? 
 
 Was Moses greater than Napoleon? 
 
 Could Moses have accomplished as much for his people by re- 
 maining in Egypt as a favorite of the king? I 
 
 What did Moses say when asked to undertake his great mission? 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 Look uP the history of Ramses II and report the chief facts of 
 his life. 
 
 In Michael Angelo’s Moses how has the sculptor indicated that 
 Moses was a lawgiver? 
 
 What modern theory of the Old Testament helps harmonize 
 Exodus 6:3 and Genesis 12:1? 
 
Chapter XII 
 
 THE BALLAD OF THE RED SEA 
 
 The prose setting. Exodus 11:4-10; 12:29-36. 
 The ballad. Exodus 15:1-18. 
 
 1. Introduction. 
 
 The Bible passages which we have studied thus 
 far have been in prose form. This chapter deals 
 with a poem and reminds us that we are dealing 
 with a varied literature. Henry Van Dyke in his 
 Companionable Books says: ‘‘The true lover of 
 the Bible has an interest in all the elements of its 
 life, as an immortal book. He wishes to discern, 
 and rightly to appreciate the method of its history, 
 the spirit of its philosophy, the significance of its 
 fiction, the power of its eloquence, and the charm 
 of its poetry...... As the worshipper in the Temple 
 would observe the art and structure of the earven 
 beams of cedar and the lily-work on the tops of the 
 pillars, the more attentively because they beautified 
 the house of his God, so the man who has a religious 
 faith in the Bible will study more easily and care- 
 fully the literary forms of the book in which the 
 Holy Spirit speaks forever.’’ 
 
 The dividing line between poetry and prose in the 
 Bible is in some cases very difficult to distinguish, 
 but in the poem we study in this chapter the differ- 
 ence is very marked. This gives the student a good 
 opportunity for learning several important facts 
 about Hebrew poetry. The characteristic feature of 
 
 71 
 
i2, BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 all Hebrew poetry is called parallelism. The two 
 lines that form a couplet, which is the unit of 
 Hebrew poetry, have a symmetry of thought, ex- 
 pressed usually in one of three forms: synonymous, 
 progressive, and antithetic. All three of these kinds 
 of parallelism are illustrated in Psalm 1. Verse 5 
 is Synonymous,— 
 
 Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgment, 
 Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. 
 
 Verse 2 is progressive,— 
 
 But his delight is in the law of Jehovah; 
 And in His law doth he meditate, day and night. 
 
 Verse 6 ig antithetic,— 
 
 For Jehovah knoweth the way of the righteous; 
 But the way of the wicked shall perish. 
 
 Other marks of the poetic form may be noted 
 briefly. There is a peculiar system of accents or 
 stresses of the voice which produce a rhythmical 
 effect when the line is read aloud. The Hebrews 
 made little or nothing of rhyme or meter but de- 
 pended upon rhythm for poetic effects. One other 
 prominent characteristic is the use of verbal.images. 
 An example of that is found in verse 8,— 
 
 And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were piled up, 
 The floods stood upright as a heap. 
 
 2. The Prose Setting. 
 
 The story of the ten plagues including the death 
 of the first-born furnishes the historical background 
 of the ballad. From ancient times Egypt had been 
 subject to plagues of insects and pestilences, owing 
 to the unsanitary climate and the dense population. 
 At times the Nile is colored with vegetable matter 
 
THE BALLAD OF THE RED SEA 1 
 
 so that the water looks like blood. There are 
 plagues of insects which make life almost unbear- 
 able for man and beast. Historical records and the 
 biblical stori#s make it plain that the series of 
 plagues frightened the Egyptians into letting the 
 Hebrews go. Whatever may be said concerning the 
 historical accuracy of the descriptions, this much 
 is certainly true, that the Bible writers forcibly ex- 
 pressed the truth that God helped the Hebrews and 
 punished the Egyptians. The climax came when 
 the angel of death smote all the first-born in the 
 land of Egypt including the heir to the throne. In the 
 night Pharaoh called for Moses and told him that 
 he could let the people go. 
 
 The details of this exciting flight into the night, 
 the enslaved clans bearing their household treas- 
 ures, driving their herds, all the men, women and 
 children laden with gifts from the terrified Egyp- 
 tians, have been re-lived around the passover tables 
 of the Jews for centuries. Picture the dismay of 
 the children of Israel when the chariots of the 
 Pharaoh are seen coming in pursuit. Moses calm, 
 relying wholly upon God, stands a very superman 
 in contrast to the others who cower like frightened 
 sheep. Both prose and ballad give vivid pictures 
 of the scenes, the comfort of the radiant cloud hid- 
 ing them from the enemy, their anxiety over the 
 passage of the Red Sea, the rushing winds sweeping a 
 pathway, the joy of safety at last on the opposite 
 bank, then swift destruction overtaking the gorg- 
 eous Egyptian chariots as the floods rush back and 
 bury the proud enemies in their depths. No wonder 
 the prophets use this reminder of God’s care in so 
 many of their great orations. 
 
74 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 3. The Contents of the Ballad. 
 
 Read aloud the ballad, noting that verses 1-10 
 picture the destruction of the Egyptians in the Red 
 Sea, and verses 11-13 describe the character of the 
 God who so wonderfully delivered them; verses 14- 
 18 explain the providential guidance of the Hebrews 
 until they have settled in the promised land. 
 
 The first couplet reads as follows: 
 
 T will sing unto Jehovah, for he hath triumphed gloriously; 
 The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. 
 
 It is likely that this constituted the whole song at 
 the time of the deliverance, and that the women 
 danced as they sang this memorial of their salvation. 
 Rogers in his History and Literature of the Hebrew 
 People explains the origin of ballads like this: ‘‘Such 
 ballads spring up spontaneously when great deeds 
 of war or great tragedies of life have become known. 
 At once somebody makes a song, somebody un- 
 known, somebody whose name will never be known. 
 He sings it at home to the neighbors. It is learned 
 at once and they who learn it sing it elsewhere. 
 Seldom do they sing it just as the author made it. 
 Often words are changed, sometimes a verse is 
 added. Hundreds of such ballads were made in 
 England before printing became easy and common. 
 Hundreds more were made and printed on sheets of 
 paper and sold on the streets of London after print- 
 ing presses became common.’? Among the grand 
 old ballads the noblest, most thrilling, most sonor- 
 ous is the glorious ballad of Chevy Chase. 
 Erle Douglas on his milke-white steede 
 Most like a baron bold 
 
 Rode foremost of his company 
 Whose armour shone like gold. 
 
THE BALLAD OF THE RED SEA 75 
 
 Our English archerg bent their bowes, 
 Their hearts were good and true. 
 
 At the first flight of arrowes sent, 
 Full fore-score Scots they slew. 
 
 4, Literary Features of the Ballad. 
 
 Driver says of this poem, ‘‘The ode of triumph is 
 one of the finest products of Hebrew poetry, remark- 
 able for poetic fire and spirit, picturesque descrip- 
 tion, vivid imagery, quick movement, effective paral- 
 lelism, and bright sonorous diction.’’ 
 
 Of the three kinds of parallelism mentioned in 
 the introduction, two are found in this poem. Our 
 understanding of the thought depends partly on our 
 ability to answer this question, what has the author 
 accomplished by the use of these parallelisms which 
 he could not have accomplished by the use of prose? 
 
 There is a fourth type of couplet in this ballad 
 which has been called stair-like parallelism, where 
 the second line repeats a few words of the first and 
 then adds others. A good example of this is v. 16. 
 Another example is Ps. 121, in which the words 
 ‘‘help’”? and ‘‘keep’’ are used to produce this stair- 
 like effect. 
 
 Note also the similes (v. 5), metaphors (v. 12b), 
 and hyperbole (v. 15c). There is more than vivid 
 description in verses like 5 and 8; the words them- 
 selves are so chosen that in reading them aloud the 
 very sound of the voice conveys the feeling which 
 the author intended to express. 
 
 5. The Religious Message. 
 
 Israel’s great gift to the world was a belief in one 
 righteous God. That thought is brought out here 
 with great clearness and beauty, especially in verse 
 
76 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 2, which is quoted in Isaiah 12:2 and Ps. 118 :14. 
 
 Another thought which had great value through- 
 out the Old Testament history appears in v.13,— 
 ‘‘the people that thou hast redeemed.’’ This con- 
 ception that God has specially chosen Israel would 
 seem to have been vindicated by history, for this 
 little nation has played a part unsurpassed in the 
 annals of mankind. 
 
 The word ‘‘loving-kindness’’ in vy. 13 strikes a 
 note which Hosea takes up and uses throughout his 
 prophecy. This element in God’s nature receives 
 an emphasis in the Old Testament which has not 
 often been recognized. God is love even in the Old 
 Testament and his providential care of the lives of 
 individuals and groups of people fills many of its 
 pages and it is beautifully expressed in this ballad. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 1. Name three or more ways of distinguishing between poetry 
 and prose. 
 
 2. Copy a synonymous and a progressive parallelism from 
 Exodus 15: 1-18. 
 
 3. What are the three thoughts expressed in this ballad? 
 4. What is the most valuable religious idea of the ballad? 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 Give the prose setting. 
 
 Prove that the poem adapts itself to the prose story of the 
 Passover and the crossing of the Red Sea. 
 
 How many similes and metaphors in Exodus 15 : 1-18? 
 What is the value of the literary study of the Bible to a man of 
 
 deep religious faith? 
 Special Assignments 
 
 Give examples from the Old Testament of the different forms 
 mentioned in the quotation from Henry Van Dyke. 
 
THE BALLAD OF THE RED SEA 17 
 
 What natural phenonema of Egypt make it easier for us to un- 
 derstand the ten plagues, which form an historical background 
 
 . for this lesson? See a history of Egypt or Barton’s Archeology 
 and the Buble. 
 
 Compare an English ballad with the ballad of the Red Sea. 
 
 Report a conversation with some Jew on the custom of observ- 
 ing Passover to-day. 
 
 Bring into class some unleavened bread. 
 
Chapter XIII 
 
 THE BEGINNINGS OF HEBREW LAW 
 
 A primitive court of law. Exodus 18:13-27. 
 
 An example of the first written laws. Exodus 34:17-26. 
 
 The Decalogue in Exodus. Exodus 20:3-17. 
 
 Lhe Decalogue in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 5:7-21. 
 
 The picture of the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai. 
 Exodus 19:10-25. 
 
 1. The Discovery of the Law Code of Hammurabi. 
 
 The oldest body of laws in existence was discov- 
 ered in Susa, the ancient Persepolis, by a French ex- 
 pedition, in the winter of 1901-2. This discovery 
 was of intense interest to the whole Christian world 
 because these laws of Hammurabi, written approxi- 
 mately a thousand years before Moses, were in some 
 cases practically identical with the laws of Moses. 
 Like the code of Moses, they claimed to be inspired, 
 for at the upper end of the front side of the rock on 
 which they were written is a sculptured bas-relief 
 representing the King Hammurabi receiving his laws 
 from the sun-god, Shamash. At the end of the 
 inscription we find these words of the king, which 
 reveal the good motives he had in preparing these 
 regulations for the life of his people in Babylonia: 
 
 ‘‘That the strong may not injure the weak, in 
 order to protect the widow and orphans, I have 
 in Babylon....in order to bespeak justice in the 
 land, to settle all disputes, and heal all injuries, 
 set up these my precious words, written upon my 
 memorial stone, before the image of me, as king 
 
 of righteousness.’’ : 
 7 
 
THE BEGINNINGS 
 
 OF HEBREW LAW 719 
 
 he likeness both in form and substance is seen 
 by comparison of the following Babylonian and 
 
 biblical laws. 
 
 Hammurabi 14 
 
 Tf a man has stolen the 
 young son of a freeman, he 
 shall be put to death. 
 
 Eammurabi 195 
 Tf a man has struck his 
 father, ore shall cut off his 
 hand. 
 
 Exodus 21:16 
 And he that stealeth a man, 
 and selleth him or if he be 
 found in his hand, he shall 
 surely be put to death. 
 
 Exodus 21:15 
 
 He that smiteth his father, 
 or his mother, shall surely be 
 put to death. 
 
 These likenesses mean that the Babylonian laws 
 were known far and wide, and that the Hebrews in 
 compiling their own system made use of them. This 
 parallel ‘‘helps us to realize that the laws of Moses 
 are not a kind of Jonah’s gourd, springing up in a 
 night; but rather, a great tree with many branches, 
 and also with many roots, a tree fed by heaven’s 
 rain and heaven’s dew. ‘The discovery leads us to 
 a bigger God, whose light shines not alone upon 
 Israel, but upon every man coming into the world, 
 upon every nation which at any time has sought 
 the peace and the power of justice.’? (W. J. Hutch- 
 ins) 
 
 2. A Primitive Court of Law. 
 
 Exodus 18 has preserved a very important pic- 
 ture of what happened in Israel before there was 
 any written law. After Moses had safely led the 
 Hebrews out of the land of Egypt, he assembled 
 them in the region of Mount Sinai. We can imagine 
 the tents in the plain, the flocks and herds grazing 
 on the wild lands near by, and the larger tent which 
 
80 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 served as a center of worship. Near this place of 
 worship Moses arranged for a sort of impromptu 
 court where the people came to have their disputes 
 settled. 
 
 One historic day Moses had become exhausted by 
 the great number of cases that had been brought 
 before him when his father-in-law Jethro came to 
 the place and observed the weariness of Moses. He 
 made a suggestion that so far as we know is the 
 starting point of the growth of all that great sys- 
 tem of law which fills so many chapters of our Old 
 Testament. It is most instructive to trace the stages 
 by which the law developed from simple customs 
 and precedents into the ten commandments, and 
 later into more elaborate codes. 
 
 The suggestion that Jethro made was that Moses 
 should appoint many assistant judges, who should 
 settle their cases either on the basis of tribal custom 
 or the decisions of kings and leaders like Moses. 
 An example of tribal custom would be the duty of a 
 man who had accidently injured his neighbor’s ox 
 to give a sound ox in its place. An example of a 
 leader’s decision is found in 1 Sam. 30:24, where 
 David decided that those who stayed by the bag- 
 gage should share equally in the spoil with those 
 who went into battle. 
 
 This scene near Mount Sinai is worthy of careful 
 study because it makes clear the origin of all law, 
 for the ‘‘common law’’ is simply custom and prece- 
 dent used in deciding cases in court. 
 
 3. An Example of the First Written Laws. 
 
 One of the first examples in our Bible of the 
 change of the common law into written statutes is 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF HEBREW LAW 81 
 
 found in Exodus 34. This is a decalogue written for 
 shepherds, and bears on its face the evidence that 
 * it was used in Israel before the people had become 
 traders and lived in cities. 
 
 Students will note that the number of command- 
 ments in Ex. 34, Ex. 20, and Deut. 5 is always ten. 
 The explanation of this carries us back to the day 
 when people could neither read nor write. They 
 were taught to memorize rules by counting on the 
 fingers, 
 
 The following is the list of ten commandments 
 which the shepherds were taught to obey, before the 
 Decalogue of Exodus 20 came into force. It is 
 found in Exodus 34:14-26. 
 
 (1.) Thou shalt not prostrate thyself before any other god 
 (v. 14). 
 
 (2.) Thou shalt make thee no molten gods (v. 17). 
 
 ) Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread (v. 18). 
 
 .) Every first born is mine (v. 19). 
 
 ) The feast of weeks thou shalt observe (v. 22). 
 
 .) And the feast of ingathering at the turn of the year 
 
 (v. 22). 
 
 .) Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with 
 
 leaven (v. 25). 
 
 (8.) The offering of the Passover shall not be left until 
 the morning (v. 25). 
 
 (9.) The best of the firstlings of thy ground thou shalt 
 bring to the house of Jahveh thy God (v. 26). 
 
 (10.) Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother’s milk 
 (v. 26). 
 
 When Exodus was written the Jews had become 
 accustomed to regard Moses as the author not only 
 of these first written laws but also of their whole 
 code. It is impossible now for us to know who 
 wrote the different parts of the law. As we have 
 them now the ‘‘Mosaic Laws’’ belong to many dif- 
 ferent periods of Israel’s history. Some of the laws 
 
82 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 of the Pentateuch reflect the life of shepherds and 
 farmers, others evidently grew out of the needs of 
 people ruled by kings; still others were written by 
 priests at a time when the temple service dominated 
 the life of the people. It is proper to give Moses the 
 credit for Israel’s law because it grew out of the 
 principles which he taught the people. 
 
 4. The Decalogue in Exodus and Deuteronomy. 
 
 There are two versions of the Ten Commandments, 
 one in Exodus 20 and the other in Deuteronomy 5. 
 This Decalogue shows the influence of the prophets, 
 who cared less for form and more for substance. 
 Amos and Isaiah criticised the people severely for 
 stealing, committing adultery, and bearing false 
 witness, and then trying to make themselves right 
 with God by going through the ceremonies of the 
 Temple. When, in the seventh or eighth centuries 
 before Christ, Hebrew law-givers revised the Mosaie 
 Law to meet the needs of the new era, they could 
 not ignore the new principles which had been 
 announced by the great moral prophets. This 
 explains why Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 are so 
 much more advanced in thought than Exodus 34. 
 
 These two versions of the Decalogue differ only 
 slightly and were based upon an original list of 
 short commands which probably ran as follows: 
 
 Thou shalt have no other godg beside me. 
 
 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. 
 
 Thou shalt not take the name of Jehovah thy God in vain. 
 Remember the Sabbath day to hallow it. 
 
 Honor thy father and mother. 
 
 Thou shalt do no murder. 
 
 Thou shalt not commit adultery. 
 
 Thou shalt not steal. 
 
 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. 
 Thou shalt not covet. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF HEBREW LAW 83 
 
 The difference between the lists in Exodus and 
 Deuteronomy is due largely to the additions made 
 ‘ at different times to explain the reasons for obeying 
 the laws. For example, Exodus 20:11 gives as a 
 reason for obeying the fourth commandment, ‘‘for 
 in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth, the 
 sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh 
 day.’’ Deuteronomy 5:14,15 gives as a reason for 
 the same commandment; ‘‘That thy man gervant 
 and thy maid servant may rest as wellas thou. And 
 thou shalt remember that thou wast a servant in the 
 land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God brought thee 
 out, thence by mighty hand and by a stretched-out 
 arm; therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee 
 to keep the Sabbath Day.’’ 
 
 5. The Priests’ Picturesque Account of the Giving 
 of the Law on Mount Sinai. 
 
 Exodus 19 :10-25 was written long after the Jews 
 had returned from the Babylonian exile, and gives 
 an idealized account of the beginnings of the law, 
 and ascribes to Moses much of the work done by 
 later law-givers. This vivid description of the scene 
 on Mount Sinai, in which Jehovah dramatically 
 gives the law to Moses, is meant to teach that law 
 is divine in origin and that its authority should be 
 recognized by all the people. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 1. Give an abstract of Exodus 18, which shows the beginning of 
 Hebrew law. 
 
 2. An example of a tribal custom which would naturally find a 
 place later in the written law. 
 
84 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 3. An example of a leader’s decision which found a place in the 
 written law. 
 
 4. Compare the two versions of the Ten Commandments, and 
 write in parallel columns the commandments that differ. 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 Does the scene in Exodus 19 : 10-25 exaggerate the dignity and 
 importance of the Mosaic law? 
 Is any code of law final, or is it subject to changes? 
 In what sense is Moses the giver of the Ten Commandments? 
 Memorize Exodus 20: 1-17 in their shorter form. 
 How does this code show the influence of the prophets? 
 
 Special Assignments 
 A sketch of King Hammurabi and the story of the discovery of 
 his famous law code. 
 Write six of Hammurabi’s laws that have a parallel in the Bible. 
 
 What shows that the account in Exodus 19: 10-25 was written 
 by priests? 
 
Chapter XIV 
 THE BALAAM ORACLES 
 
 The prose story of Balaam. Numbers 22. 
 First oracle. Numbers 23:7-10. 
 
 Second oracle. Numbers 23:18-24. 
 
 Third oracle. Numbers 24:3-9. 
 
 Fourth oracle. Numbers 24:15-19. 
 
 1. Sources of the Oracles. 
 
 When we read this strange story of the sooth- 
 sayer Balaam, we wonder why two distinct accounts 
 of the incident are woven together. The explana- 
 tion is as follows. Far back in the time of David 
 the original story of Balaam was first told. As 
 travellers and bards repeated it, additions were 
 made and it finally took on several very different 
 forms. Two or three centuries later the historians 
 known to scholars as J and E were writing their 
 histories of Israel and had to decide what form of 
 the Balaam story to preserve. J, who was fond of 
 vivid pictures and the supernatural, chose that form 
 of the story which described the ass as speaking 
 and Balaam as having mystical visions (Num. 22:28; 
 94:4), This is the same writer who in Genesis 3 
 describes the serpent as speaking. 
 
 The other form of the story (Num.23:7-10, 18-24) 
 was handed down by the E writer, who lived in the 
 northern kingdom, was more restrained in language, 
 never made animals speak, nor had God appear in 
 person. As we study the four oracles, we shall en- 
 joy them better if we Fuentes that the first two 
 
86 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 were written by E and the last two by J. When 
 we come upon apparent contradictions in chapter 
 22, we should remember that they are explained by 
 the circumstance that two accounts have been 
 woven into one. 
 
 2. The Story Behind the Poems. 
 
 Balak, king of Moab, in dread of the great 
 advancing host of Hebrews, which was about to 
 encamp in his territory and impoverish his land, 
 sent his elders to secure the services of a soothsayer 
 by the name of Balaam who was credited with the 
 supernatural power of calling down curses or 
 blessings from heaven. When the elders had made 
 known their mission, Balaam invited them to lodge 
 with him that night. During the night God talked 
 with Balaam and told him not to go with the elders, 
 and not to curse the Hebrews, for the blessing of 
 heaven was upon them. So in the morning the 
 soothsayer refused to go. 
 
 When the elders reported to Balak that they had 
 failed, he sent some of his most honored princes to 
 beseech Balaam to come. During the night after 
 their arrival, God again appeared to Balaam and 
 gave him permission to go with the princes, but 
 commanded him to say only the words which He 
 should put in his mouth. 
 
 In the morning Balaam saddled his ass and 
 started toward Moab with the princes. On the way 
 the ass saw an angel in the road and ran aside into 
 the field, but Balaam whipped her back into the 
 road. Soon they came to a narrow pass between 
 two cliffs. Again the ass saw an angel and shied 
 against the wall, crushing the prophet’s foot. A 
 
THE BALAAM ORACLES 87 
 
 little farther on, in a very narrow place in the road, 
 the ass saw the angel a third time and lay down 
 under Balaam. In anger, the soothsayer smote the 
 animal with his staff. Then the ass spoke and 
 rebuked her master, and at that moment God opened 
 the eyes of Balaam and for the first time he saw the 
 angel standing in the middle of the road with a 
 sword drawn in his hand. The angel said, ‘‘Go 
 with the men, but only the word that I shall speak 
 unto thee, that thou shalt speak.’’ 
 
 As soon as Balaam reached Moab, the king 
 hastened to take him to a high place of Baal from 
 which they could view the tents of the Hebrews 
 which seemed to cover the land. Balaam ordered 
 seven altars built and offered on every altar a 
 bullock and aram. Then he went alone to a barren 
 height and waited for inspiration from heaven. 
 
 3. The Four Oracles. 
 
 These four oracles and the circumstances under 
 which they were delivered have no parallel in the 
 Bible. A heathen seer, standing on a bare and 
 rugged mountain top, not far from ‘‘Nebo’s lonely 
 mountain,’’ is inspired by the God of the Hebrews 
 and delivers some remarkable prophecies. Balaam 
 seems to go into a sort of trance and to utter words 
 of mystic meaning which he himself does not com- 
 prehend. King Balak, from his position near the 
 smoking altars, is looking up to the soothsayer with 
 awe, combined with a happy expectation of super- 
 natural aid against his enemies. But to his conster- 
 nation the inspired prophet blesses the enemies of 
 Moab instead of cursing them. Hodges, in his book 
 How to Know the Bible, says: ‘‘This pagan seer is 
 
88 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 inspired of God. As Melchizedek, king of Salem, 
 was a true priest of the Most High God (Gen.14:18), 
 so Balaam is a true prophet. The gift of inspiration 
 overpasses the boundaries of religion. ‘God came 
 unto Balaam,’ as he came to Confucius, to Zoroaster, 
 to men of religion who had no place in either the 
 Old Testament or the New.”’ 
 
 Balak then takes the prophet to the top of Mount 
 Pisgah, builds seven altars, and offers up a bullock 
 and a ram on every altar to see if the oracle will not 
 speak in his favor. Again Balaam goes apart to 
 meet Jehovah while the king of Moab and his princes 
 stand by the altars anxiously awaiting the result. 
 When the divine afflatus seizes him, the prophet says; 
 
 *“God is not a man, that he should lie, 
 
 Neither the son of man that he should repent. 
 He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, 
 
 Neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel.’’ 
 
 This strange process is repeated on Mount Peor 
 where two oracles favorable to Israel are spoken. 
 
 ‘‘And Balak’s anger was kindled against Balaam, and he 
 smote his hands together; and Balak said unto Balaam, 
 I called thee to curse mine enemies, and, behold, thou 
 hast altogether blessed them these three times. There- 
 fore now flee thou to thy place; I thought to promote 
 thee unto great honor; but, lo, Jehovah hath kept thee 
 back from honor. And Balaam said unto Balak, Spake 
 I not also to thy messengerg that thou sentest unto me, 
 saying, If Balak would give me his house full of silver 
 and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of Jehovah, to do 
 either good or bad of mine own mind; what Jehovah 
 speaketh, that will I speak?’’ 
 
 The literary form of these oracles is noteworthy. 
 The first has seven synonymous parallelisms, and the 
 rhythm is unusually fine. Examples of the progres- 
 sive and antithetic parallelisms occur in the other 
 oracles, and the metaphors and similes are numerous. 
 
THE BALAAM ORACLES 89 
 
 The wise choice of words and the skillful use of im- 
 ages seem to reflect a rather advanced stage of poet- 
 ry in Israel. It is believed that these oracles took 
 form in the time of David, because the references to 
 Moab and Edom imply that period of history. 
 Doubtless they were embodied in the J and E his- 
 tories during the ninth and eighth centuries before 
 Christ. These suggestions open the door to a very 
 inviting realm of literary study. 
 
 In the realm of religion, also, these oracles open up 
 many interesting lines of investigation. For exam- 
 ple, what is the meaning of the prophet’s mystic 
 experience in 24:3,4? Again, how do you explain 
 the fact that Israel’s God inspires a heathen sooth- 
 sayer? Does it foreshadow the belief of later ages 
 that ‘‘God hath not left himself without witness in 
 any nation?’’? Balaam’s prophecies concerning the 
 future of Israel have had a remarkable fulfillment. 
 Study 23:9, 10; 24:7, 9; 24:17-19. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 
 1. Why did Balak send for help? 
 2. What shows that Balaam depended upon God? ° 
 3. Outline the incidents in the four oracles. 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 Read aloud examples of synonymous, progressive, and anti- 
 thetic parallelisms from the oracles. 
 
 Discuss the fulfilment of Balaam’s prophecies. 
 
 Could a heathen seer be a prophet of God? 
 
 Special Assignments 
 Explain the contradictions in the oracles, 
 
Part 4 
 
 LITERARY SELECTIONS ILLUSTRATING THE 
 FRONTIER LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 DURING THE FIRST CENTURY IN PALESTINE 
 
 Chapter XV 
 
 THE SONG OF DEBORAH 
 
 The prose setting. Judges 4. 
 The song. Judges 5. 
 
 1. The Historical and Literary Importance of the 
 Song. 
 
 This victory ode of Deborah’s celebrates one of 
 the great crises in Hebrew history. After the death 
 of Joshua the Hebrew tribes were in danger of 
 being crowded out of Palestine by the Canaanites 
 whom the Hebrews had left unconquered in the 
 largest cities and plains of the country. They 
 dared not use the regular roads for fear of capture 
 and they were not allowed to have a blacksmith 
 among them lest they should make weapons. All 
 the work of Moses and Joshua seemed likely to be 
 undone and the Promised Land lost to the Hebrews. 
 
 At this juncture arose Deborah, a woman whose 
 wisdom and prophetic powers brought many in- 
 quirers to her as she sat under the famous palm- 
 tree, five or six miles north of Jerusalem. Deborah 
 saw that something must be done at once to prevent 
 
 the extermination of Israel. She sent for a noted 
 90 
 
THE SONG OF DEBORAH 91 
 
 military leader by the name of Barak and with his 
 help gathered ten thousand soldiers from the tribes. 
 They assembled on Mount Tabor in the valley of 
 Jezreel where Sisera, commander-in-chief of the 
 Canaanites, had mustered a large army to quell the 
 uprising. On the day of the battle, when the Israel- 
 ites rushed down from Mount Tabor upon the ene- 
 my, a timely downpour of rain made the valley 
 impassable for the 900 chariots of Sisera and Israel 
 was victorious. 
 ‘*F¥rom heaven fought the stars, 
 From their courses they fought against Sisera. 
 
 The river Kishon swept them away, 
 That ancient river, the river Kishon.’’ 
 
 Josephus, writing in the first century A. D., ex- 
 
 plains the victory as follows: 
 
 ‘¢There came down from heaven a great storm with a vast 
 quantity of rain and hail, and the wind blew the rain 
 full in the face of the Canaanites, and so darkened their 
 eyes that their arrows and slings were of little or no ad- 
 vantage to them, nor would the coldness of the air permit 
 the soldiers to make use of their swords; while this storm 
 
 did not so much incommode the Israelites because it came 
 at their backs.’’ 
 
 Following the battle, after the custom of those 
 days, they celebrated the victory by dancing and 
 singing on the part of the women. It is supposed 
 that all or part of Judges 5 was written for that 
 occasion. The song is recognized by almost all 
 scholars as one of the earliest pieces of Hebrew liter- 
 ature in the Old Testament, and it is also one of the 
 finest. Bewer says, ‘‘This triumphal ode belongs 
 in the judgment of critics to the finest odes in the 
 literature of the world and ig not excelled in poetic 
 power by any of the later war poems of Israel.’’ 
 
92, BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 Fowler writes, ‘‘Whatever of uncertainty may at- 
 tach to the effort to assign many specific poems to 
 the pre-monarchical period, the one great literary 
 monument of this age, the Deborah Song, is in itself 
 evident proof that already, in the days of the early 
 tribal struggles for possession of the land, the poet’s 
 art had reached great power and some refinement.”’ 
 Kent, in his The Songs, Hymns, and Prayers of the 
 Old Testament, says: “‘It is the longest and noblest 
 example of the triumphal ode in the Old Testament. 
 In a series of dramatic scenes it presents the feelings 
 of the actors and the important stages in the decisive 
 battle which determined the mastery of Canaan and 
 the fate of Jehovah’s people.”’ 
 
 2. The Thought and Form of the Poem. 
 
 Study first of all the six graphic and vigorous 
 scenes: (1) verses 4 and 5, a picture of God’s march 
 from Sinai to Palestine to save his people; (2) verses 
 6 to 8, the wretched condition of Israel, oppressed 
 by the Canaanites; (3) verses 12 to 18, the conduct 
 of the Hebrew tribes when Deborah sought to rouse 
 them to action; (4) verses 19 to 22, description of 
 the battle; (5) verses 25-27, the death of Sisera by 
 the hand of a woman; (6) verses 28-30, the pathetic 
 account of Sisera’s mother at home waiting for her 
 son’s return. Among the leading ideas of the poem 
 are the following: The leadership of woman, the 
 rallying power of belief in God, and the contrast 
 between those that ‘‘jeoparded their lives unto the 
 death’’ and the cowards that during the battle ‘‘sat 
 among the sheepfolds’’ and ‘‘came not to the help 
 of Jehovah against the mighty’’. Perhaps there 
 is no better expression in literature of the scorn due 
 
THE SONG OF DEBORAH 93 
 
 those who take no part in a supreme effort to save 
 a nation. 
 
 The literary form of the ode will repay careful 
 study. One should begin by reading it aloud in 
 order to feel the rhythm and power of the poetry. 
 It is well to enumerate the figures of speech and to 
 distinguish between the different kinds of parallel- 
 ism in order to make the thought as clear as possi- 
 ble. A device, which may be called stair-like paral- 
 lelism, of which Psalm 121 is a fine example, is used 
 in several places in the Song of Deborah. In verses 
 12-14, the words ‘‘awake,’’ ‘‘arise,’’ and ‘‘down’’ 
 form the stairs. In verses 19-23, the same effect is 
 produced by the repetition of ‘‘fought,’’ ‘‘prane- 
 ings,’? and ‘‘help’’. Observe the same figure in 
 verses 26, 27. There are three cases of the figure 
 of apostrophe, in verses 2-3, 9-10, and 31. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 1. What crisis in Hebrew history does this ode celebrate? 
 2. A paragraph characterizing Deborah. 
 3. What is the meaning of “from heaven fought the stars’? 
 4. What is the chief religious lesson of the poem? 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 Read the poem aloud by the outline under Section 2. 
 What does Josephus add to the story? 
 Is Bewer’s estimate of the poem sustained by your study? 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 Compare Deborah with Joan of Are. 
 Make a list of the different figures of speech which the poem 
 contains. 
 
Chapter XVI 
 
 THE SWORD OF THE LORD AND GIDEON 
 
 A picture of Gideon. Judges 6:11-24. 
 
 Why Gideon was called Jerubbaal. Judges 6:25-32. 
 
 ‘The fleece of wool. Judges 6:33-40. 
 
 The band of Gideon chosen. Judges 7:1-8. 
 
 The dream of victory. Judges 7:9-14, 4 
 
 The sword of the Lord and Gideon. Judges 7:15-23. 
 Gideon declines a great honor. Judges 8:22-24. . 
 Jotham’s Fable. Judges 9:7-15. 
 
 1. The Menace of the Midianites. 
 
 The nomads of the south and east of Palestine, 
 variously termed Midianites, Ishmaelites, and the 
 Children of the East, made frequent raids on the 
 disorganized Hebrew farmers in the eleventh cen- 
 tury before Christ. Like the Bedouin of today, 
 they did not attempt a permanent conquest, but only 
 a thievish depredation. ‘‘Nomads prefer that set- 
 tled people should do the work of sowing, while they 
 reap the harvest. The comparison with locusts 
 which pass over the land, stripping it and leaving 
 it bare, is apt. The temporary flight of the inhabi- 
 tants through the hills and caves was repeated up to. 
 the time of the Maccabees, and is still common in 
 Syria, in the Balkans, and elsewhere at the pres- 
 ent time.’’ 
 
 2. The Character of Gideon. 
 
 The stories about Gideon are so well told that 
 they have made his name a household word in all 
 
 civilized countries. The conditions under which he 
 94 
 
THE SWORD OF THE LORD AND GIDEON 95 
 
 lived are vividly portrayed. There was no strong 
 ruler, no commercial activity, no army; only groups 
 - of farmers here and there, struggling for a living, 
 and ‘‘every man did what was right in his own 
 eyes.’? The following criticism of Gideon’s char- 
 acter by Professor Phelps is too severe when we 
 think of the erude age in which Gideon lived: 
 
 ‘¢They were finally delivered by the cautious and sceptical 
 Gideon, who must have tried God’s patience with his 
 doubtings, questionings and_bargainings, but who for 
 some reason was rewarded. His faith, like that of many 
 others, depended wholly on facts and figures. I cannot 
 regard him as a hero; he took no chances..... The cal- 
 culating shrewdness of human nature, the desire to invest 
 with only assured profit, are sharply revealed in the char- 
 acter of Gideon.’’ 
 
 The New Century commentary has a fairer estimate of 
 Gideon. 
 
 ‘‘He was evidently a man of great influence in Palestine. 
 His own personal character is more clearly delineated 
 than that of any other hero (except Samson, whose life 
 is of quite another character). Above even his simple 
 straight forwardness and his courage stands his religious 
 nature. 
 
 If one studies the references to Gideon in the pas- 
 ages written at the head of this chapter, he will be 
 able to add other qualities of character to the 
 description of the man. 
 
 3. Gideon’s Change of Name. 
 
 Fowler (History of the Literature of Ancient 
 Israel) believes that the occurrence of the two names, 
 Gideon and Jerubbaal, is due to the combination of 
 the two historical narratives J and E into one. Two 
 historical episodes, one about Gideon, another about 
 Jerubbaal, are here united. These documents J and 
 
96 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 E are a continuation of those that we studied in Gene- 
 sis and Exodus. 
 
 The story is a vivid picture of denominational 
 rivalry in the little town of Ophrah, a few miles 
 northeast of Bethel. 
 
 4. The Test of Gideon’s Call. 
 
 It was the custom in ancient times to ask for a 
 material sign of God’s approval. The cal! of Moses 
 was signalized by a burning bush, and Hlisha’s call 
 was evidenced by the miraculous dividing of the 
 waters of the Jordan. The use of the fleece of wool 
 as a test by Gideon shows that he had not outgrown 
 the customs of his day and generation. Whatever 
 interpretation scholars may put on this story, there 
 can be no doubt that Gideon believed in a ‘‘power 
 that makes for righteousness,’’ and that the belief 
 was effective in his life. 
 
 Read Mrs. Alexander’s poem on The Fleece of 
 Gideon. 
 
 5. The Selection of Gideon’s Band. 
 
 It is not numbers alone that count. ‘‘Ten men 
 working together, each man working heartily, what 
 have you? You have ten times one man plus their 
 unity, plus the enthusiasm born of cooperation, plus 
 all the incalculable energies that are born only when 
 heart is joined to heart, and soul is joined to soul.”’ 
 
 After Gideon had dismissed 22,000 men, who were 
 ‘‘fearful and trembling,’’ 10,000 still remained. 
 Jehovah told him that was too many, and the water 
 test was tried in order to reduce the number. 
 Various explanations have been given of this test. 
 The best one is that the 300 took water in their 
 
THE SWORD OF THE LORD AND GIDEON 97 
 
 hands and licked it up as a dog laps, and that the 
 rest bent down on their knees and drank directly 
 from the stream. The latter would be less valuable 
 ‘as soldiers since they showed poor judgment in put- 
 ting themselves in a defenseless posture when an ene- 
 my might be near. 
 
 6. A Dream Encourages Gideon, 
 
 The ancients believed that every dream had its 
 meaning, and was a message from heaven. Gideon 
 overheard two Midianites telling a dream which one 
 of them had had concerning a round cake of barley 
 bread which had rolled on its edge, struck against 
 a Midianite tent, and overturned it. This dream 
 was interpreted as indicating the defeat of Midian 
 by a man of Israel. 
 
 7. The Battle and the Offer of Kingship. 
 
 At about 10 P. M. a successful attack was made 
 by the Israelites. Gideon’s men stood on three sides 
 of the camp of the enemy, shouting, blowing their 
 trumpets, and waving their torches. In a panic the 
 Midianites fled toward the Jordan. 
 
 The men of Israel (probably of his own tribe 
 Manasseh) offered Gideon the kingship; and the offer 
 included the right to have Gideon’s son sueceed him, 
 and thus establish a royal line. Gideon’s declination 
 implied that God does not desire that any king 
 should stand between Himself and His people Israel. 
 
 8. Jotham’s Fable. 
 
 There are only two fables in the Bible; the other 
 is in 2 Kings 14:9. 
 This one in Judges 9:17 is most interesting. The 
 
98 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 satire of the fable is aimed at Abimelech. The 
 seventy sons of Gideon had been exercising authority 
 over the Israelites, who were without any estab- 
 lished government. At last one of them, Abime- 
 lech, asserted his supremacy, killed off all his 
 brothers, except one, and assumed the kingship. 
 When the surviving brother, Jotham, heard the 
 news, he spoke this fable to the people. He went 
 up on Mount Gerizim on the south side of Shechem, 
 and, standing on a projecting rock, addressed the 
 assembled crowd. He said that the olive, fig tree, 
 and vine declined to rule over the other trees be- 
 eause God had given them nobler work to do; but 
 the thorn pompously accepted the invitation, and 
 boasted in ridiculous fashion of its own power. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 1. Under what circumstances was Gideon called to be the 
 savior of his tribe? 
 
 2. Make a list of the qualities of character in Gideon, in op- 
 position to the view of Phelps. 
 
 3. Evidences that the two historians J and E wrote the account 
 of Gideon. 
 Oral Discussion 
 What was the reason for the use of the fleece of wool? 
 
 Give arguments in favor of the strategic ability of Gideon in 
 his reduction of his army. 
 
 What explanation can you give of Gideon’s dream? 
 Was Gideon wise to decline the kingship? 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 Read to the class Mrs. Alexander’s The Fleece of Gideon. 
 
 Read and explain to the class Jotham’s Fable, showing the 
 humor in it. 
 
Chapter XVII 
 
 THE IDYL OF RUTH 
 The Book of Ruth, Chapters 1-4. 
 
 1. The Best Short Story. 
 
 A recent text on the short story asserts that the 
 Book of Ruth is one of the best-told and most beau- 
 tiful stories in all literature. It is simple and ear- 
 nest in thought, and has beauty and rhythm of 
 style. The plot involves many dramatic incidents. 
 The characters are described with an art so perfect 
 that the reader is unaware of it. The contrasts in 
 scenes and the sudden changes in fortune of the 
 characters sustain the interest of the reader. 
 
 A. good woman of Bethlehem loses her husband 
 and two sons; Ruth, a heathen girl, is exalted to a 
 place among the chosen people; Boaz, a rich and 
 notable man, marries this poor girl, who is gleaning 
 in his fields; from a heathen ancestress, the Christ 
 of the Jews is descended. 
 
 The best way to enjoy this book is after all, as 
 Moulton has said in his Modern Reader’s Bible, to 
 read it without comment. ‘‘The story of Ruth,’’ he 
 says, “‘is the very ideal and type of the Idyl: so 
 delicate in its transparent simplicity that the worst 
 service one can do the story is to comment on it.’’ 
 
 2. The Motive of the Author. 
 The author makes so prominent the fact that Ruth 
 was a Moabite woman that it has long been believed 
 
 by scholars that his motive was to condemn the racial 
 99 
 
100 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 exclusiveness of the Jews, for the story in its present 
 form comes from that period in their history shortly 
 after Ezra and Nehemiah had enforced the law 
 against marriages with foreign women. A protest 
 had been made against this by the son of the high 
 priest who refused to give up his foreign wife and led 
 a protestant group to Mount Gerizim and built a 
 rival temple there. The books of Ruth and Jonah 
 both bear witness to the existence of a liberal party 
 in Jerusalem. If this is a true explanation of the 
 book, certainly it must have made a profound impres- 
 sion in later times, when David’s genealogy was 
 traced back to Ruth. In still later times, when Jesus 
 was found to be a descendant of David and Ruth, the 
 broader view of life as presented in this story seems 
 to have been fully justified. 
 
 3. Interpretation of Difficult Passages. 
 
 In the days when the judges judged, 1:1. The 
 scene of the story is laid in the far distant age before 
 Samuel and Saul. How early it was written we do 
 not know; the last version was produced for a special 
 purpose at a late date as we have seen above. 
 
 Wives of the women of Moab, 1:4. Marriage 
 with foreign women was not forbidden until later 
 times. Deut. 23:3, which was not in force until the 
 seventh century before Christ, is especially severe on 
 this point. 
 
 Chemosh, 1:15, was the god of the Moabites. Jeho- 
 vah was the God of the Jews. Each tribe had its 
 own peculiar worship and there was no knowledge of 
 the One God over all. 
 
 Naom....Mara, 1:20. Naomi means pleasant, 
 and Mara means bitter. 
 
THE IDYL OF RUTH 101 
 
 Glean among the ears of corn, 2:2. This custom 
 was afterward reduced to law in Deut. 24:19 and Lev. 
 23:22. 
 
 One of our near kinsmen, 2:20. A kinsman in 
 ancient custom was one who redeems a claim. Ifa 
 man died without heirs, it was the duty of the kins- 
 man to marry the widow and to give the first-born 
 son the name of the dead. This son would inherit 
 the property and perpetuate the family name. 
 
 Now Boaz went up to the gate and sat down there, 
 4:1. The gate of an Eastern city is often a building, 
 in the shade of which men may sit comfortably in 
 the heat of the day. Near it is a broad open space 
 where a market is held and the people meet for the 
 interchange of news and settlements of disputes 
 (Gen. 19:1; 23:10; 34:20). 
 
 A man drew off his shoe, 4:7. The drawing off of 
 the shoe meant the giving up of the man’s rights as 
 in Deut. 25:9. Among the Arabs today as among the 
 Hebrews, the shoe is the symbol of possession. 
 
 4, The Dramatization of Ruth. 
 
 The story of Ruth lends itself readily to the dram- 
 atic form. Very little scenery is necessary and the 
 parts are very easy for students to take. Many a 
 student has been awakened for the first time to the 
 beauty of the Bible by taking part in a presentation 
 of Ruth as a drama. 
 
 Highteen or more persons may be used in the cast 
 of characters. 
 
 Naomi, wife of Elimelech. 
 Elimelech, a man of Bethlehem. 
 Mahlon, Chilion, sons of Naomi and Elimelech., 
 
102 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 Ruth, Orpah, of the land of Moab, widows of Mah- 
 lon and Chilion. 
 
 Boaz, a kinsman of Naomi. 
 
 Micah, a kinsman of Naomi. 
 
 Deborah, a prophetess. 
 
 Rebekah, Hannah, women of Bethlehem. 
 
 Overseer of Boaz’ field. 
 
 Two Young Men, Two Young Women, reapers in 
 Boaz’ field. 
 
 Gideon, Samuel, elders of the city. 
 
 The following is a possible arrangement of the 
 scenes or acts in the drama: 
 
 Scene 1. Ruth 1:1, 2 
 
 Place: Bethlehem. Persons: Elimelech, Naomi, 
 Mahlon, Chilion. A time of famine. 
 
 Scene 2. Ruth 1:3-22 
 
 Places: Moab, the journey back to Bethlehem, 
 and the well of Bethlehem. 
 
 Persons: Naomi, Orpah, Ruth, and some women 
 of Bethlehem. 
 
 Seene 3. Ruth Chapters 2 and 3 
 
 Places: Field of Boaz and the house of Naomi. 
 Persons: Boaz, Naomi, Ruth and the reapers in 
 field of Boaz. 
 
 Scene 4. Ruth Chapter 4 
 
 Places: Gate of the city, with public square just 
 inside the gate; the house of Boaz, in which the 
 ancestor of David and Christ was born. 
 
 Persons: Boaz, a near kinsman, the elders of the 
 city; Ruth, a little child. 
 
THE IDYL OF RUTH 103 
 
 5. Outstanding Ideas of the Idyl. 
 
 No piece of literature can be really great unless 
 _ it has deep thought as well as fine style. What are 
 the great teachings of Ruth? 
 
 While the action of the story seems to turn on 
 the recognition of the duty on the part of the near- 
 est relative to marry the widow of a man who has 
 died without male children, nevertheless the prom- 
 inence of the fact that the greatest royal line of the 
 Hebrews was descended from a Moabite girl com- 
 pels us to think that the leading idea is racial 
 breadth and sympathy. The proud exclusiveness 
 of the Jew, and by inference all racial exelusiveness 
 and narrowness of sympathy, is condemned. 
 
 The other great suggestion of this book is the 
 ‘Corace of loyalty.’’ Professor Phelps in his Human 
 Nature in the Bible makes this the leading theme of 
 the Book of Ruth. He says: ‘‘Ruth is a pretty name: 
 in Hebrew it means friendship and in English pity. 
 She lived up to her name in both languages; she was 
 both loyal and sympathetic....There is nothing sen- 
 timental and nothing insipid in this idyl; it is a sub- 
 urban pastoral, illustrating the grace of loyalty. We 
 have learned in the twentieth century not to mini- 
 mize the virtue of loyalty; this fine flower of human 
 nature has its roots deep in the human heart. The 
 beauty of loyalty consists in giving rather than receiv- 
 ing; giving all if need be, and asking nothing before or 
 after. Selfish and calculating persons are conspicu- 
 ously without it; and it is not fully understood by 
 men of pure intellect. But there is always something 
 splendid, something refreshing about people who have 
 ater 
 
 ~ 
 
104 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 The words in which Ruth expressed her loyalty to 
 Naomi will never be forgotten. 
 
 ‘¢Entreat me not to leave thee, 
 And to return from following after thee: 
 For whither thou goest, I will go; 
 And where thou lodgest, I will lodge; 
 Thy people shall be my people, 
 And he God my God; 
 Where thou diest, I will die, 
 And there will I be buried. 
 Jehovah do so to me, and more also, 
 If aught but death part thee and me.’’ 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 
 1. Describe the historical situation of the book of Ruth. 
 2. Make a list of the sudden changes of fortune of the char- 
 acters. 
 Oral Discussion 
 What was the author’s motive in writing this book? 
 How could a Hebrew marry a Moabite woman? 
 Who was Chemosh? 
 Describe the gate of an Eastern city. 
 What are the great teachings of Ruth? 
 
 How is it that the Jews are so narrow in their racial prejudices 
 when they have such books as Ruth and Jonah in their Bible? 
 
 Special Assignments 
 Memorize the poem in Ruth 1: 16, 17. 
 Let the class work together on a dramatization of this book. 
 List the literary qualities of the book. 
 Ruth in art. 
 
Chapter XVIII 
 THE BOY SAMUEL 
 
 The song of Hannah. I Samuel 2:1-10. 
 The Magnificat. Luke 1:46-55. 
 The call of Samuel. I Samuel 3:1-21. 
 
 1. The Literary Character of the Books of Samuel. 
 
 When the reader of the Bible turns to the history 
 in the books of Samuel, he expects to find a series of 
 more or less dry records, But to his surprise he comes 
 upon a group of pictures, like that of the boy Samuel, 
 so clearly drawn that they can never be forgotten. 
 One character after another is delineated in the midst 
 of dramatic situations which sustain attention to the 
 end. Mpreover, the narrative in which these pictures 
 are imbedded is remarkable for its vivid and unpre- 
 meditated simplicity. 
 
 Prof. Meyer thinks that the narratives in Samuel 
 ‘“otand far above every thing which we know else- 
 where of ancient historical oriental writing.’’ Indeed, 
 they compare favorably with the best histories in the 
 world, and by many people are regarded as the most 
 important. 
 
 2. The Song of Hannah. 
 
 Hannah’s song of thanksgiving over the birth of 
 Samuel is comparable in many ways to Mary "3 song 
 in Luke 1:46-55. The thoughts of the two poems are 
 similiar. Both express exultant joy in God’s saving 
 power (I Sam. 2:1 and Lk. 1:47); and both rejoice 
 
 105 
 
106 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 in the exaltation of the poor, and the bringing low of 
 the rich (I Sam. 2:7 and Lk. 1:52). 
 
 The likeness between the songs in thought and 
 structure is so great that we may assume that the 
 author of the one was influenced by the other. The 
 same type of parallelism occurs in both, and both use 
 the same unusual word ‘‘horn’’. As in the ease of 
 other poems of the Old Testament, the best intro- 
 duction to Hannah’s Song is a study of the different 
 kinds of parallelism and figures which appear in it. 
 
 3. The Call of Samuel. 
 
 The Bible gives a great deal of space to the visions 
 and other experiences connected with the call to ser- 
 vice of men who afterward became distinguished. 
 Moses, Gideon, Elisha, Isaiah, and many others were 
 called after they had reached the age of manhood and 
 the descriptions of their experiences are among the 
 most treasured writings of the world. Samuel re- 
 ceived his call in early boyhood and thus differs from 
 every other great character in the Bible. 
 
 The scene of Samuel’s call was the tabernacle at 
 Shiloh where the boy had been placed by his mother 
 and consecrated to a religious life. He was, it is es- 
 timated, between twelve and fifteen years old, and his 
 duty was to assist the aged priest Eli in the services. 
 He had a little chamber in the tabernacle, not far 
 from Eli, which opened into the main room where 
 “‘the lamp of God’’ burned all night. Joshua, evi- 
 dently, had followed this same custom of sleeping in 
 the Tent of Meeting (Ex. 33:11). 
 
 In the night Samuel was awakened by a voice 
 calling his name. He ran to Eli thinking that the 
 aged priest needed him. At the third call Eli sug- 
 
THE BOY SAMUEL 107 
 
 gested that the call was from God and told the lad to 
 answer, ‘‘Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.’’ 
 When Samuel did answer God, he was told of the 
 doom of Eli’s house. Very soon it was noised abroad 
 that Samuel was to be the next prophet. 
 
 The times needed a leader like Samuel, for Eli’s 
 sons, who were the active priests, were bad men. They 
 used the best of the sacrifices to satisfy their own 
 appetites, and were immoral in their conduct. Be- 
 cause of the sins of these priests men despised the 
 sacred sacrifices. In later years Samuel became a 
 great prophet in Israel, thus fulfilling the promise of 
 these early days. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 1. Make a list of the characters that are finely delineated in 
 the books of Samuel. 
 
 2. Compare Hannah’s song of thanksgiving over the birth of 
 Samuel, and the Magnificat, Luke 1 : 46-55. 
 
 3. A synonymous parallelism from each of these poems. 
 4. Outline the call of Samuel. 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 How do you explain the experience that young Samuel had? 
 Are all calls to religious service alike? 
 
 How do the books of Samuel compare with other histories? 
 What is the most important religious lesson in Hannah’s song? 
 
 Special Assignments 
 Study the condition of the times to show the need among priests 
 and people of a man like Samuel. 
 
 Read about the places of worship of the Hebrews before they 
 had the temple. 
 
 Give a sketch of a modern call to service. 
 
Part 5 
 
 LITERARY SELECTIONS WITH THE HEBREW 
 MONARCHY FOR A BACKGROUND 
 
 Chapter XIX 
 
 THE CHOICE OF SAUL AS THE FIRST KING 
 
 The first meeting of Samuel and Saul. I Samuel 9:1-26. 
 
 The anointing of Saul and the three signs. I Samuel 
 9:27-10:13. 
 
 Saul delivers a town in distress. I Samuel 11:1-15. 
 
 1. The Sources of the Books of Samuel. 
 
 Even a hasty reading of the way in which Saul 
 became king, as it is described in I Sam. 9-12, reveals 
 statements that are hard to reconcile. One series of 
 statements represents Samuel as bitterly opposing the 
 monarchy and deseribing the many evils that the 
 people will bring upon themselves if they have a king 
 rule over them; the other pictures Samuel as earnestly 
 working for the establishment of the monarchy and 
 asserts that God indicated to Samuel that Saul should 
 be anointed as king. The first series is found in | 
 Sam. 8 and 12; the second in I Sam. 9, 10, 11. 
 
 The explanation of this difference is found in the 
 fact that there was an early and a late account of the 
 founding of the Hebrew kingdom. The early account, 
 probably, is the oldest historical writing among the 
 Hebrews, and comes from the tribe of Benjamin, 
 
 Saul’s old home. The date of this document is usu- 
 108 , 
 
THE CHOICE OF SAUL AS THE FIRST KING 109 
 
 ally given as 950 B. C. The later document, which 
 represents Samuel as opposed to the kingdom, origin- 
 ated among the prophets of Northern Israel not 
 earlier than 750 B. C. 
 
 2. The First Meeting of Samuel and Saul. 
 
 After the defeat of the Hebrews by the Philistines 
 the sacred ark was lost to Israel. Eli, the priest at 
 Shiloh, died of grief. The ark had many strange 
 adventures and was finally sent back to the Hebrews 
 because plagues broke out among the people who 
 retained it. Samuel had come to be regarded as 
 Israel’s judge. When the people obeyed his de- 
 cisions they overcame their enemies. 
 
 But Samuel was growing old, and there was need 
 of a youthful leader to meet the crisis brought about 
 by the encroachment of foreign enemies. The Phil- 
 istines on the west, and the Ammonites on the east 
 had become especially troublesome. 
 
 The way in which a brilliant, youthful leader was 
 provided is described in the passages printed at the 
 head of this chapter. They tell how the tall, impul- 
 sive, and capable Saul went out to find his father’s 
 lost herd, and found, instead, a kingdom. Read the 
 story by the following outline, and learn to tell it in a 
 way that will bring out the character of the persons, 
 the location of the places, and the dramatic changes 
 in the experience of Saul as clearly and interestingly 
 as possible. 
 
 I Samuel 9:1-10, Saul, in search of his father’s lost herd, 
 is directed to the prophet Samuel. 
 9:11-21, Saul goes to Ramah and finds Samuel there, and 
 
 Samuel has been warned by God of the coming of Saul. 
 
 9:22-24, The banquet on the hill at which the youthful Saul 
 was given the seat of honor. 
 
110 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 9:25-10:1, Samuel entertains Saul at his home, and next 
 morning anoints the astonished young man as king. 
 10:2-16, The strange experiences of Saul on his way home. 
 
 3. The Significance of the Anointing with Oil 
 
 Anointing was the method of consecrating a man 
 to the kingly office A small amount of oil was poured 
 upon the head by some person who was recognized as 
 the official representative of God. From the moment 
 of his anointing, a man was set apart from others, 
 much as one is officially set apart as President of the 
 United States by the oath administered to him in be- 
 half of the sovereign people by some legal representa- 
 tive. 
 
 I Samuel 10:1 is the earliest recorded instance in 
 the Old Testament of the act of anointing. This 
 custom had been long observed in Canaan as we may 
 infer from Judges 9: 8, 15, and from a reference in 
 the Tell-el-Amarna letters to the anointing of a 
 Canaanite prince. ‘‘At the outset it clearly signified 
 the transference to the person anointed of part of the 
 mysterious holiness or virtue of the deity in whose 
 name and by whose representative it was performed.’’ 
 
 This subject is of peculiar importance to a student 
 of the Bible because the word ‘‘Christ,’’ afterwards 
 applied to Jesus, is simply the Greek equivalent of the 
 Hebrew word ‘‘anointed.’’ When applied to Jesus, 
 it signified that he was recognized as that ideal king 
 so often spoken of in the Old Testament. 
 
 4. The Event which made Saul, thus far practically 
 unknown to the Hebrew tribes, a famous man 
 and most acceptable king. 
 
 This somewhat sensational episode is described in 
 I Samuel XI. Saul, a farmer-king, is plowing with 
 
THE CHOICE OF SAUL AS THE FIRST KING 111 
 
 his oxen, at Gibeah. Messengers come running to him 
 from beyond the Jordan, asking for immediate help 
 against the Ammonites, who had threatened to put 
 out the eyes of the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead. The 
 manner in which Saul responds convinces his nation 
 that he is worthy to be their leader. Read the story 
 by the following outline: 
 
 I Samuel 11:1-5, The messengers from Jabesh find Saul in 
 the field. 
 
 11:6-10, Saul’s method of assembling an army. 
 
 11:11, The victory over the Ammonites. 
 
 11:12-15, Enthusiastic confirmation of Saul as King. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 1. How may we reconcile the apparent contradictions in the ac- 
 counts of the origin of the monarchy? 
 
 2. Make a list of the places where the ark was taken after the 
 death of Eli. I Samuel, Chapters V, VI, VII. 
 
 3. How did the victory at Jabesh affect the reputation of Saul? 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 Does the credit of finding the lost herd belong to Saul or his 
 servant? 
 Where did Saul sit at the banquet in Ramah? 
 Describe the anointing of Saul by Samuel. 
 
 How does it happen that a passage in Samuel rather than Gen- 
 esis is called the oldest piece of historical writing? 
 
 What is the meaning of the three signs by which Saul’s destiny 
 was confirmed ? 
 
 Special Assignments 
 What is the history of the custom of anointing? 
 The meaning of the words “ Messiah” and ‘‘Christ.” 
 The historical background of the calling of Saul to lead the 
 Hebrews. 
 Discuss the importance of that respect for authority which the 
 people of all nations have shown. 
 
Chapter XX 
 VIGNETTES OF JONATHAN AND DAVID 
 
 Jonathan in a daring exploit. I Samuel 14:1-14. 
 Jonathan as a popular idol. I Samuel 14;36-45. 
 David and Goliath. I Samuel 17:4-51. 
 
 An historic friendship. I Samuel 18:1-5; 19:1-7. 
 David as a military hero. I Samuel 18:6-9. 
 Jonathan saves David. I Samuel 20:1-42. 
 
 1. The Setting of the Vignettes. 
 
 The Philistines had come up from the coast-lands 
 to renew their attempt to conquer the Hebrews. Saul 
 had gathered a little army of three thousand men to 
 check their advance, but he failed to hold Michmash, 
 an important Hebrew fortification, and the victorious 
 enemy stationed a garrison there. Michmash was the 
 name of the precipitous cliff across the valley from 
 Geba, where Jonathan was with the Hebrew garrison 
 which was under the command of Saul. 
 
 2. Jonathan As a Soldier and Idol of the People. — 
 
 Jonathan proposes to his armor-bearer that they 
 go down across the valley, climb the opposite cliff, and 
 make a surprise attack on the Philistine garrison, 
 trusting in Jehovah to give them success. As the 
 brave young men suddenly appear and kill twenty 
 men with javelins and stones, the taunts of the enemy 
 were changed to wonder and fear. An earthquake 
 further roused their superstitious terror and the 
 panic quickly spread. Saul saw the commotion and 
 ordered a general attack. 
 
 112 
 
VIGNETTES OF JONATHAN AND DAVID 113 
 
 When the Philistines were in full flight, an in- 
 cident occurred which illustrates the superstition of 
 aul and his people, and at the same time throws into 
 relief the intelligence and goodness of Jonathan. In 
 order to guard against delay in the pursuit, Saul 
 pronounced a curse on any one who should stop to 
 take food until the rout of the Philistines was com- 
 plete. Jonathan, not being informed of this curse, 
 ate a little honey. Now the oracle, which Saul con- 
 sulted to see if he should continue the pursuit on the 
 next day, refused to answer. To Saul and the priest 
 this meant that some one had sinned and God was 
 offended. Having ordered all the soldiers to come 
 together Saul found that his own son Jonathan was 
 the offender. Either from a sense of justice or from 
 stubbornness Saul refused to save Jonathan but the 
 people interfered and said that the curse must not fall 
 on their idol who had that day saved them from the 
 enemy. 
 
 3. Young David in Single Combat Against the 
 Giant. 
 
 One’s sympathy is'wholly with the boy David as he 
 comes up from the farm laden with food for his 
 brothers who are soldiers in the Hebrew army. When 
 David arrives at camp, he finds the army frightened 
 by a Philistine giant who has challenged the Hebrews 
 to single combat. The story of David’s valor and 
 success should be told by the pupils in class. An ex- 
 cellent summary is found in the outline followed by 
 Kuhnau, who was the originator of the type of musi- 
 cal composition called the sonata. In a quaint, de- 
 lightful sonata, entitled David and Goliath, he ar- 
 ranged the separate movements as follows: 
 
114 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 1, The stamping and taunting of Goliath. 
 
 2. Terror of the Israelites and their prayer. 
 
 3. Courage of David, his desire to meet the giant, and his 
 confidence. 
 
 4. Contest of words between David and Goliath. 
 
 5. The combat in which Goliath falls and is slain. 
 
 6. Flight of the Philistines who are pursued and slain by 
 the Israelites. 
 
 7. Exultation and feast of the victorious people. 
 
 8. aan praise of David sung by the women, in antiphonal 
 choirs. 
 
 9. General joy and triumph expressing itself in dancing 
 and singing, 
 
 4, The Friendship of David and Jonathan. 
 
 This friendship is so beautifully described in these 
 brief passages that it has taken a permanent place in 
 the thought of the world and has become a type of all 
 generous and lasting friendship. Greek literature 
 has a parallel in the love of Damon and Pythias. Py- 
 thias had been condemned to die and his friend Damon 
 was allowed to take his place in prison while the 
 friend was freed to attend to important business on 
 the condition that Damon should die as a substitute 
 in case Pythias did not return on the appointed day. 
 When Pythias did return on time, the ruler of the 
 city was so impressed with their friendship that he 
 pardoned the offender and asked to be counted in the 
 circle of their friends. 
 
 Saul’s jealously blinded him to the beauty of the 
 friendship of David and Jonathan. . 
 
 David saw that everything he did increased Saul’s 
 feeling of enmity, and he asked Jonathan’s aid. They 
 laid a plan to discover Saul’s intentions concerning 
 David. David was to hide during the days of special 
 sacrifices, then if Saul was still determined to kill him, 
 Jonathan was to make it known by a flight of arrows. 
 
VIGNETTES OF JONATHAN AND DAVID Tio 
 
 The young men made a solemn pact to be friends for- 
 ever. The story of the arrows should be told in dra- 
 matic detail. 
 
 5. David’s Military Glory. 
 
 When David had completed his first campaign 
 against the Philistines the women sang his praise in a 
 famous couplet, 
 
 Saul has slain his thousands, 
 And David his ten thousands. 
 
 This is an example of the folk-lore of Israel. A 
 couplet would originate in connection with the danc- 
 ing and singing over a victory, and often that couplet 
 would become the basis of a poem of considerable 
 length as in the case of Exodus 15. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 1. Brief sketch of the setting of the word-pictures of the famous 
 men in I Samuel. 
 2. Outline of the events in I Samuel 14: 1-45. 
 3. What episode in that narrative shows the democratic spirit 
 of the Hebrews? 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 Recall the story of David and Goliath by the aid of the out- 
 line of Kuhnau’s sonata, pp. 113, 114. 
 
 What was the meaning of “pronouncing a curse” in ancient 
 times ? 
 
 Was Saul just in refusing to save his own son from death? 
 
 Has there been a great historic friendship between women com- 
 parable to that between David and Jonathan? 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 Report fully the story of Damon and Pythias. 
 
 List the qualities of character essential in such a friendship as 
 that between David and Jonathan. 
 
Chapter XXI 
 
 DAVID AS AN OUTLAW 
 
 David secures the sword of Goliath. I Samuel 21:1-15. 
 At the cave of Adullam. I Samuel 22:1, 2. 
 David ‘‘inquires of the Lord.’’ I Samuel 23:1-13. 
 The meanness of Nabal. I Samuel 25:2-13. 
 The eloquent plea of Abigail. I Samuel 25:14-35. 
 David spares Sanl’s life. I Samuel 26:1-25. 
 1. Introduction. The Secret of the Success of 
 
 David and of Israel. 
 
 Saul’s jealousy compelled David to flee from the 
 king’s court at Gibeah. His adventures, as he wan- 
 dered in the wild regions of Judah from the borders 
 of the Philistines in the west to the dark ravines of 
 the Dead Sea on the east, reveal a many sided char- 
 acter. He did many cruel and evil deeds, but on the 
 whole he stood for justice in those wild times when 
 there was no law and order. He was intensely religious 
 and tender hearted, and secured for the nation many 
 great advantages, like the establishment of a national 
 system of worship. 
 
 The Hebrew nation, also, was many-sided and 
 often seemed likely to fail because of its great sins, 
 yet it survived while more powerful nations disap- 
 peared without leaving a trace of good. George Adam 
 Smith contrasts Israel with the Philistines in this 
 respect: “‘Israel attained to a destiny, equalled in 
 the history of mankind only by Greece and Rome, 
 whereas all the fame of the Philistine lies in having 
 served as a foil to the genius of the Hebrew, and 
 today his name against theirs is the symbol of im- 
 
 penetrableness and obscurantism.”’ 
 116 
 
DAVID AS AN OUTLAW 117 
 
 The attainments of David and of Israel alike are 
 explained by two things: their belief in a holy God 
 who had a plan for human history, and a sense of a 
 mission of great importance to all mankind. 
 
 2. The Sword of Goliath. 
 
 David escaped from the king’s headquarters at 
 Gibeah, four miles north of Jerusalem, without food 
 and weapons. In the path of his flight was the little 
 town of Nob, where there was a place of worship. 
 David, pretending to be on a secret mission from the 
 king, called at the sanctuary, and asked the high 
 priest for bread and a spear, or sword. There was 
 no bread except that which had been consecrated to 
 the uses of the sanctuary, but David took that and 
 also the sword of Goliath which had been kept as a 
 souvenir of the great victory over the Philistines. A 
 little later Saul took terrible revenge on the priests 
 and the people of Nob for giving this aid to David 
 (I Samuel 22 :9-23). 
 
 We next see David at the cave of Adullam where 
 400 other outlaws have joined him. Adullam was 
 about 15 miles southwest from Jerusalem. Kirkpat- 
 rick, in his commentary on Samuel in the Cambridge 
 Bible, calls attention to the fact that ‘‘the sides of 
 the tributary valleys are lined with rows of caves, 
 amply sufficient to accommodate David’s 400 men.’’ 
 3. David’s Religion. 
 
 It is difficult for us to put ourselves in the place 
 of David and understand what he meant by prayer. 
 He calls it ‘‘inquiring of the Lord.’’ A good example 
 of David’s religious acts is found in the story in Sam- 
 uel 23 of his deliverance of the village of Keilah from 
 the Philistines. When they asked him to save Keilah, 
 
118 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 he went to the priest Abiathar, who had escaped from 
 the massacre at Nob, and asked him to consult Jehovah 
 concerning the proposed expedition. Abiathar put 
 on his ephod, which looked like a breastplate, and on 
 a little shelf attached to the ephod, shook dice, called 
 Urim and Thummim. If the dice fell in a certain 
 way, the Hebrews believed that God was answering 
 in the affirmative; if another way, it meant the neg- 
 ative. This was the only way, so far as the records 
 show, in which David talked with God. This may 
 seem formal and even crude to us, but there can be 
 no question that David was a sincerely religious man. 
 
 4, The Eloquent Plea of Abigail. 
 
 During his outlaw life, David was obliged to 
 depend for supplies upon the wealthy farmers or 
 shepherds, whose property he would protect from the 
 invaders in return for the food. Professor Phelps 
 describes an instance of this sort: ‘‘It seems that he 
 (David) and his followers had protected the property 
 of a rich farmer named Nabal; being in need of food, 
 David sent his young men to this plutocrat, request- 
 ing assistance. Nabal was a hard-bitten old skinflint, 
 and he said, ‘Who is David? Am I going to hand 
 over my goods to a runaway servant?’ When this 
 message was brought back, the impulsive and passion- 
 ate young leader flew into a tempest of rage and 
 sallied out to destroy Nabal, his family and his en- 
 tire possessions. There is no doubt that he would 
 have done this if it had not been for Nabal’s pretty 
 wife Abigail. She secretly took an enormous heap 
 of costly provisions, and went to meet the avenger. 
 David was extremely susceptible to beauty, and when 
 this “‘woman of good understanding and of a beauti- 
 
DAVID AS AN OUTLAW 119 
 
 ful countenance’’ looked him in the eyes and spoke 
 flatteringly and soothingly, he melted like snow in 
 the sunshine. She was as fair in speech as in face; 
 she said: ‘The soul of my lord shall be bound in the 
 bundle of life with the Lord thy God.’ . David blessed 
 her for coming, and for saving him from the guilt of 
 murder. She returned home.”’ 
 
 The plea of Abigail is one of the literary master- 
 pieces of the Old Testament. Note the conciliatory 
 approach to the angry David, the conciseness of the 
 speech, the choice diction, and the beautiful figures. 
 We recall that other women have been credited with 
 beautiful parts of the Old Testament: Miriam with 
 Exodus 15, and Deborah with Judges 5. 
 
 5. David’s Forgiving Love. 
 
 Saul continued his unrelenting pursuit of the 
 youthful David. More than once David, who was a 
 more skilful warrior than Saul, had the king within 
 his power, but refused to capture him or harm him 
 in any way. The incident in I Samuel 26 :1-25 is an 
 excellent example of the generosity of David. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 1. How did the outlaw David secure the sword of Goliath? 
 2. Describe the method of prayer employed by David. 
 3. pene pe good and one bad deed of David during his out- 
 aw life. 
 4. The secret of the success of David and the nation Israel. 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 Was David right in demanding provisions from Nabal? 
 Map study of Gibeah, Nob, and Adullam. 
 Was David religious or spiritual? 
 Special Assignments 
 
 Read aloud the plea of Abigail, and make a list of its literary 
 qualities with references to the passages. 
 
Chapter XXII 
 DAVID’S ELEGY 
 
 The witch of Endor. I Samuel 28:4-20. 
 The death of Saul and Jonathan. I Samuel 31:1-13. 
 David’s Elegy. II Samuel 1:19-27. 
 
 1, Introduction. The Historical Setting of the 
 Elegy. 
 
 The armies of the Philistines and Hebrews were 
 encamped in the valley of Esdraelon, facing each 
 other on the slopes of Mt. Gilboa. Saul’s courage 
 failing, the night before the battle, he went down to 
 the little village of Endor to consult a spiritualistie 
 medium. She called up the dead prophet Samuel, 
 and interpreted his message to the king as follows: 
 ‘‘The Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand 
 and given it to David, because thou obeyest not the 
 voice of the Lord.’’ . 
 
 The next day Saul and Jonathan lost their lives 
 on Mt. Gilboa. To commemorate their memories 
 David wrote an elegy of which Professor Wild, in 
 her Literary Guide to the Bible, says: ‘‘This is one 
 of the most famous and beautiful elegies in all litera- 
 ture. Taken against the historical background of 
 First Samuel and the account of David’s relation 
 with Saul and Jonathan, its noble spirit is more 
 clearly apparent.’’ 
 
 William Lyon Phelps, in discussing the elegy on 
 Saul and Jonathan, calls attention to two fine quali- 
 
 ties in the character of David. 
 120 
 
DAVID’S ELEGY 121 
 
 ‘‘There were two fine qualities in David that were never 
 understood even by those closest to him; one was his 
 reverential loyalty to King Saul, the other the strength 
 of his family affection. Both were greater than his 
 concern for his personal glory or safety. Nearly all men 
 have been glad to learn of the death of their enemies, 
 especially when an immediate advantage rises from it. 
 Julius Caesar and David—both humane—are the notable 
 exceptions. David was at Ziklag one day when a messen- 
 ger came from the field of battle, bearing the news that 
 Saul was dead and saying that he, the messenger, had, 
 at the king’s request, killed him. To the astonishment 
 of the visitor, David was struck with horror. Wast thou 
 not afraid to stretch forth thine hand to destroy the 
 Lord’s anointed? And he had the man killed on the 
 BOOM sacdts.s Then he composed an elegiac poem for Saul 
 and Jonathan, which, in immortal phrase, sets forth the 
 passion of loyalty and friendship.’’ 
 
 2. The Structure of the Elegy. 
 
 This poem was taken by the author of Samuel from 
 an ancient collection of poems called the Book of 
 Jashar. This collection, and another entitled the 
 Book of the Wars of Jehovah, are the only collections 
 of poems which are quoted by name in the earlier 
 books of the Bible; but the references (Num. 21:27; 
 Num, 21:14; Josh. 10:12; 2 Sam. 1:19;) prove that 
 such anthologies were being made in Israel as early 
 as the time of David. 
 
 A translation by Professor Kent, based on a revi- 
 sion of the Hebrew text, runs as follows: 
 
 Weep, O Judah! 
 Grieve, O Israel! 
 On thy heights are the slain! 
 How have the mighty fallen! 
 
 Tell it not in Gath, 
 
 Declare it not in the streets of Askelon; 
 
 Lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, 
 Lest the daughters of the uncircumcised exult. 
 
122 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 Ye mountains of Gilboa, may no dew descend, 
 Nor rain upon you, O ye fields of death! 
 For there was the shield of the mighty cast away, 
 The shield of Saul, not anointed with oil. 
 From the blood of the slain, 
 From the fat of the mighty, 
 The bow of Jonathan turned not back, 
 The sword of Sauk returned not empty. 
 
 Saul and Jonathan, the beloved and the lovely! 
 In life and in death they were not parted; 
 They were swifter than eagles, 
 They were stronger than lions. 
 
 Daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, 
 
 Who clothed you daintily in fine linen, ; 
 Who put golden ornaments on your garments (and say): 
 How have the mighty fallen in the midst of battle! 
 
 Jonathan, in thy death hast thou wounded me! 
 
 I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan! 
 
 Thou wert surpassingly dear to me, 
 
 Thy love to me was far more than the love of woman! 
 
 How have the mighty fallen, 
 And the weapons of war perished! 
 
 We see in this poem the beginnings of the elegiac 
 rhythm which did not reach its perfection until five 
 hundred years later when the Book of Lamentations 
 was written. Lamentations 1:1-3, for example, is 
 an illustration of the perfect form of the elegy, each 
 line having five accented syllables, with a logical 
 pause after the third. 
 
 How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! 
 
 She is become as a widow, that was great among the 
 nations! 
 
 She that was a princess among the provinces, how is she 
 
 become tributary! 
 
 A solemn effect was produced when reading this 
 aloud by dropping the voice after the third beat in 
 each line and letting the tone fall away to almost 
 silence at the end. David’s Elegy approaches this 
 
DAVID’S ELEGY 123 
 
 complete elegiac form in line 4 of stanza 6, and in 
 the couplet which ends the poem. By grouping to- 
 gether three lines, selected from different parts of the 
 poem, it is easy to see the growth of the elegiac strain 
 through the successive stanzas. 
 
 How have the mighty fallen! 
 
 How have the mighty fallen—in the midst of the battle! 
 
 How have the mighty fallen—and the weapons of war 
 perished! 
 
 Note, also, that the poem opens with a stanza in the 
 quick, two-beat measure, which gradually rises to 
 the three and four beat measure, and closes with a 
 long, five-beat elegiae line. This produces the effect 
 of power. In addition to this quality of power, and 
 to the element of pathos produced by the elegiac 
 strain, note the beautiful phrases that cling to the 
 memory in verses 23, 25 and 26. 
 
 3. The Teachings of the Poem. 
 
 Friendship and loyalty are beautifully expressed 
 in these lines, but deeper than these sentiments is 
 the spirit of forgiving love manifest in David’s 
 eulogy of Saul. For we must remember that they 
 were written by David in honor of his most deadly 
 enemy, Saul having repeatedly tried to murder 
 David. 
 
 The historical records of Jonathan’s friendship 
 for David add pathos to the expressions of David’s 
 grief, and help the reader appreciate this wonder- 
 ful friendship. David’s tribute to Jonathan is more 
 beautiful and touching than the famous tribute in 
 English literature written by Tennyson in memory 
 of Arthur Hallam. 
 
124 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 My Arthur, whom I shall not see 
 *Til all my widowed race be run; 
 Dear as the mother to the son, 
 More than my brothers are to me! 
 
 Browning has put into David’s mouth words 
 about King Saul—that big, generous, impulsive, 
 fallible man—which find a response in every mind. 
 
 **O Saul, it shall be 
 A face like my face that receives thee; a Man like to me, 
 
 Thou shalt love and be loved by, for ever ; a Hand like 
 this hand 
 
 Shall throw open the gates of new life to thee! See the 
 Christ stand! ’’ 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 1. Outline the story of the witch of Endor. 
 
 2. Name the five points made in the five stanzas of David's 
 elegy, not counting the introduction and the conclusion 
 of the poem. 
 
 3. From what old collection of poems was this elegy taken? 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 What reasons had David for disliking Saul? 
 Was David insincere in praising Saul in the elegy? 
 Practice reading the elegy by the directions at the bottom of p. 
 122. 
 
 Show the growth of the elegiac strain through the successive 
 stanzas. 
 
 Which is more beautiful, David’s tribute to Jonathan, or Tenny- 
 son’s to Arthur Hallam? Give reasons. 
 Special Assignments 
 
 Read He nly Saul and quote passages that praise or favor 
 Saul. 
 
Chapter XXIII 
 
 HOW JERUSALEM BECAME THE HOLY CITY 
 
 Bringing the ark to the city. 2 Samuel 6. 
 A parallel account in Chronicles. 1 Chronicles 13, 15, 16. 
 The anthem at the gate. Psalm 24:7-10. 
 
 1. Historical Introduction. 
 
 For more than seven years David had been king 
 at Hebron, having authority over Judah alone. 
 This authority had been greatly limited by the 
 powerful and hostile Philistmes, who were near 
 neighbors. After the death of Saul and of Saul’s 
 son, the northern tribes asked David to rule also 
 over them. This gave David a large territory and 
 a kingdom capable of taking a place among the 
 nations of the Orient. 
 
 The capture of Jerusalem from the Jebusites (2 
 Sam. 5:6-10) gave David a city suitable for his 
 capital. The possession of this city was the be- 
 ginning of a new epoch in the history of the 
 Hebrews, and in the history of humanity. A won- 
 derful succession of events, recalled to our minds 
 by the names of Solomon, Isaiah, Nebuchadrezzar, 
 Cyrus the Great, Alexander the Great, Pompey, the 
 Crusaders, and General Allenby, has thrown a halo 
 around Jerusalem so that we now call it the Holy 
 City. The whole world respected General Allenby 
 when in December, 1917, upon taking possession of 
 the city for the Allies, he went in through the gates 
 on foot and with head uncovered. 
 
 After taking possession of the city, David had a 
 
 125 
 
126 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 tent erectcd in which to place the Ark, the holy 
 symbol of Israel’s faith, but the Ark was in the 
 hands of the Philistines. More than twenty years 
 before this it had been rashly earried into battle 
 and lost. David showed the instincts of a statesman 
 as well as the devotion of a religious man by making 
 it his first business to dignify his capital by the 
 presence of the Ark of God. 
 
 2. The Story of the Return of the Ark. 
 
 David forms a procession of thirty thousand peo- 
 ple, including soldiers and bands of music, and goes 
 to Baal-Judah to bring the Ark to Jerusalem. They 
 secure the sacred symbol, and put it upon a new cart 
 which is drawn by a yoke of oxen. The procession 
 starts back with a blare of trumpets and great re- 
 Joicing on the part of all the people. 
 
 At the threshing floor of Nacon, the oxen stumble 
 over a rough place in the road and the Ark seems 
 likely to tip over. Uzzah hastily puts up his hand to 
 steady it, but no sooner does he touch the holy symbol 
 than he falls dead. In great fear, David removes the 
 Ark to a house nearby and the procession returns 
 in silence and superstitious dread to Jerusalem. 
 
 Three months later, upon hearing that the house 
 where the Ark was had been greatly blessed, David 
 renews his effort to secure the sacred symbol. This 
 time by the advice of the priests, the Ark is carried 
 on staves by Levites. After the procession advances 
 six paces with the Ark and no fatalities occur, a 
 sacrifice is offered. Moulton suggests that it would 
 have been very appropriate for the choirs to have 
 sung Psalm 30 at this point. 
 
 When the procession reaches the base of the hill 
 
HOW JERUSALEM BECAME THE HOLY orry 127 
 
 on which Jerusalem rests, another halt is made, so 
 Moulton suggests, and Psalm 24:1-6 is chanted. 
 Then at the top of the hill, close to the gate of the 
 city, a formal ceremony is enacted. One choir is 
 stationed within the city gates and another without, 
 and they chant antiphonally Psalm 24:7-10. 
 
 First Choir (outside the gates): 
 
 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; 
 And be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, 
 And the King of glory will come in. 
 
 Second Choir (inside the closed gates) : 
 Who is the King of glory? 
 First Choir: 
 
 Jehovah, strong and mighty, 
 
 Jehovah, mighty in battle. 
 
 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; 
 
 Yea, lift them up, ye everlasting doors; 
 And the King of glory will come in. 
 
 Second Choir: 
 
 Who is this King of glory? 
 First Choir: 
 
 Jehovah of hosts, 
 
 He is the King of glory. 
 
 At the phrase ‘‘ Jehovah of hosts,’’ which proved 
 to be the watchword, the gates open and the pro- 
 cession moves with the Ark to the sacred tent where 
 the symbol of God’s presence is reverently installed. 
 
 The parallel account in Chronicles, written 300 
 years later, adds some interesting details to the 
 story. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 1. Name the succession of events by which David had prepared 
 a capital city for the ark. 
 
 2. Brief outline of the story of the bringing of the ark to the 
 city. 
 
128 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 3. Why did David want the ark? 
 4. What has religion to do with the life of a nation? 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 Is the observance of form necessary to the preservation of re- 
 ligion? 
 Was Uzzah’s death due to the fact that he touched the ark, or 
 was that an aficient writer’s explanation of the fact? 
 
 Read a verse from Psalm 30 which might have been used if the 
 Psalm was written at that time in connection with the sacri- 
 fice at the beginning of the second attempt to restore the ark. 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 Write an essay on “Why Jerusalem is Called the Holy City.” 
 
 What additions to the story of the installation of the Ark in 
 Jerusalem are found in I Chronicles 13, 15, and 16? 
 
Chapter XXIV 
 THE INGRATITUDE OF A ROYAL SON 
 Absalom’s rebellion. IL Samuel 15:1-18:33. 
 1. Introduction. The Testimony of Hall Caine. 
 
 This is a most illuminating story and contains 
 the materials and suggestions for an interesting his- 
 torical novel. Its character studies, its mention of 
 famous places, and its allusions to the national his- 
 tory make it one of the most important descriptions 
 in the Old Testament. Some Hall Caine should use 
 it in writing a novel. McClure’s Magazine contains 
 the testimony of Hall Caine to the suggestiveness 
 of the Bible to the writer of fiction: ‘‘There is no 
 book in the world like it (the Bible), and the finest 
 novels ever written fall far short in interest of any 
 of the stories it tells. Whatever strong situations 
 I have in my books are not of my creation, but are 
 taken from the Bible. The Deemster is the story 
 of the Prodigal Son. The Bondman is the story 
 of Esau and Jacob. The Scapegoat is the story 
 of Eli and his sons, but with Samuel as a little girl; 
 and The Manaman is the story of David and Uriah.’’ 
 
 2. A Type of the Biblical Short Story. 
 
 This story of Absalom may be considered as a 
 typical example of the short story. It is surprising 
 when one comes to think of it how many such stories 
 there are in our Bible, and how great is their liter- 
 
 ary beauty. Professor Wild says of them, ‘‘Two 
 129 
 
130 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 elements are quite apparent, namely, simplicity and 
 earnestness of purpose which brings in the zest of 
 enthusiasm. Add to this, beauty and rhythm of 
 style and an almost perfect story is accomplished. 
 This rhythmical, poetical element is especially ap- 
 parent in biblical stories.’’ i 
 
 A good short story usually has a hero, a char- 
 acter in opposition, and supporting friends on either 
 side. Read the fine characterization of the persons 
 in the story of Absalom in the following passages: 
 David the hero is described in 2 Sam. 15:30; 15 :24, 
 25; 18:5, 29-33. Absalom, the villain, is finely set 
 forth in 15:1-6, and in other parts of the story. As 
 examples of the author’s treatment of the other 
 characters, study Ittai (15:19-23), Hushai (15 :32- 
 37; 17:6-13), Ahithophel (16:23; 17:23). 
 
 3. The Development of the Plot, 
 
 Students of the Bible are so unaccustomed to ap- 
 proach the text in this way that it is well to analyze 
 the plot of the rebellion of Absalom quite minutely 
 in order to call attention to the large number of 
 incidents and characters in the story. It is sug- 
 gested that the class prepare to tell the story by 
 the following outline. © 
 
 Absalom gains popular favor. 15:1-7 
 
 The strong conspiracy at Hebron. 15:7-12 
 
 David forsakes his capital. 15:13-18 
 
 Ittai, the loyal follower. 15:19-24 
 
 David’s self-denying refusal to take the Ark. 15:24-30 
 Hushai’s secret mission. 15:32-37 
 
 Ziba’s present. 16:1-4 
 
 Shimei curses David. 16:4-14 
 
 Success of Hushai’s mission. 16:15-17:14 
 
 The messengers elude Absalom’s officers. 17:15-22 
 
 er 
 PS PN OTH 09 DO ps 
 
THE INGRATITUDE OF A ROYAL SON 131 
 
 11. David’s warm reception by the inhabitants of Mahan- 
 aim. 17:24-29 
 
 12. The battle between the forces of David and Absalom. 
 18:1-8 
 
 13. Tragic death of Absalom. 18:9-18 
 
 14. Tidings of the battle. 18:19-32 
 
 15. David’s grief. 18:33-19:4 
 
 16. Joab rebukes David. 19:5-8 
 
 4, Outside Readings. 
 
 An interesting parallel to David’s grief over the 
 death of Absalom is found in Priam’s lament over 
 Hector in Homer’s Iliad, Book XXII. — 
 
 The storm scene in Shakespeare’s King Lear may 
 be read in connection with 2 Samuel 15:23, 30. See 
 also The Death of Absalom by N. P. Willis. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 
 1. Make an outline of the story of Absalom by filling in the 
 plot as given in Section 3. Add only fifteen sentences to 
 the fifteen lines of the plot and make a connected state- 
 ment. 
 
 2. What constitutes a good short story? 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 Make an argument for Absalom as the hero of the story rather 
 than David. 
 
 Was Absalom justified in rebelling against his father’s kingdom 
 if the government was not efficient? Does the end justify 
 the means? Compare Matthew 4: 8-10. 
 
 How may family ties interfere with the best interests of the 
 state? II Samuel 18:33-19:8. What is nepotism? 
 
 Special Assignments 
 Report from one of Hall Caine’s novels examples of his use of 
 biblical material. 
 
 Read parallels to David’s grief from the lament of Priam in 
 Homer’s Iliad, 
 
Chapter XXV 
 
 THE EPIC OF JEROBOAM 
 
 The luxury afd oppressions of King Solomon. I Kings 
 4:21-28; 5:13-18; 10:26-11:11. 
 
 Promotion of Jeroboam, the day-laborer. I Kings 11:26-28. 
 
 The rending of the garment and a prophecy. I Kings 
 11:29-39. 
 
 Jeroboam rebels and flees. I Kings 11:40. 
 
 A declaration of independence. I Kings 12:1-20. 
 
 1. Historical Setting. 
 
 Jeroboam was one of the common people that 
 suffered oppression in the reign of the luxury-loving 
 Solomon, who has been compared with Louis XIV 
 in France. In his desire to rival neighboring na- 
 tions in maintaining a brilliant court, Solomon 
 assembled a large harem of women, of high rank 
 or beautiful, and gathered in Jerusalem a large 
 group of noble families, whose expenses were paid 
 by the state. Horses, chariots, a large standing 
 army, beautiful buildings, the royal entertainment 
 of foreign and native guests, a household and palace 
 retinue whose members ran into the thousands—all 
 involved much labor and great expense. The king 
 and the nobility revelled in luxury, while the masses 
 suffered from poverty and forced labor. As Louis 
 XIV planted the seeds that bore fruit in the French 
 Revolution, so Solomon developed a system of social 
 injustice that culminated in the rupture of the 
 Hebrew monarchy. In this social and_ political 
 revolution, Jeroboam, the hero of this chapter, bore 
 
 a leading part, 
 : 132 
 
THE EPIC OF JEROBOAM Pala 
 
 2. The Septuagint adds to our Knowledge of Jero- 
 boam. 
 
 The Hebrew historians in their natural desire to 
 extol the great King Solomon have given scant 
 space to the day laborer who became a boss-work- 
 man, and a factor in disrupting the kingdom. We 
 welcome, therefore, three new items of information 
 from the Septuagint, the invaluable Greek transla- 
 tion of the Old Testament, used by Jesus and his 
 disciples, which was completed about 100 B. C. 
 This translation states that Jeroboam had an ignoble 
 birth in an obscure place in northern Israel, that 
 he was leader in a lJabor-strike in Jerusalem, organ- 
 izing in connection with it a force of 300 chariots, 
 and that in Egypt he married a sister of the Phar- 
 aoh. 
 
 3. The Story of the Rending of the Garment. 
 
 One evening when the young labor boss, Jero- 
 boam, was walking in a field outside the city of 
 Jerusalem, he met an aged prophet, Ahijah. Now 
 the prophet was wearing a new garment and to the 
 astonishment of Jeroboam he rent the garment into 
 twelve pieces, declaring that the kingdom of Solo- 
 mon should be thus rent and ten tribes given to 
 Jeroboam. This symbolic act appealed to the young 
 man’s ambitions and strengthened his opposition to 
 the social injustice of Solomon. 
 
 4, The Declaration of Independence of the North- 
 ern Tribes. 
 
 When Solomon’s foolish young son, Rehoboam, 
 eame to the throne, and went to Shechem in the 
 north to receive the homage of the ten tribes, the 
 
134 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 representatives of these tribes met him with a 
 demand for better conditions of life for the common 
 people. Rehoboam unwisely assumed a manner 
 even more autocratic than Solomon, and thereby 
 lost more than half of his kingdom. The northern 
 tribes rebelled, sent for Jeroboam, and made him 
 king at Shechem. 
 
 5. The Teachings. 
 
 Solomon disregarded the principle of social jus- 
 tice, stated so clearly in the remarkable verse in the 
 prophecy of Micah (6:8). Theodore Roosevelt as 
 a modern ruler stood in contrast with Solomon. 
 Recall his acts as president with reference to (1) 
 his personal relations with all classes and races; 
 (2) oppressive monoplies in coal and other necessi- 
 ties on which the people were dependent; (8) the 
 improvement of the living conditions of the farmers 
 of the nation. 
 
 Jeroboam’s rise from the ranks, and Rehoboam’s 
 loss of power, are excellent examples of the use and — 
 misuse of opportunity on the part of young men. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 
 1. Compare the luxury of Solomon with that of Louis XIV. 
 2. Name three or more items in the oppressive policy of Solomon. 
 
 3. Give the story of the rending of the garment by which the 
 prophet Ahijah appealed to the ambition of Jeroboam. 
 
 4, Three facts which the Greek translation of the Old Testament 
 contributes to our knowledge of Jeroboam. 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 Was a teacher of religion like Ahijah justified in inciting Jero- 
 boam to rebellion against the government? 
 
THE EPIC OF JEROBOAM 135 
 
 Give the debate between the leaders of Israel and young Reho- 
 boam in Shechem. 
 
 Was it right for the laborers in Jerusalem to strike? 
 
 What was the result of Rehoboam’s decision? 
 
 What great principle did Solomon and Rehoboam disregard? 
 Memorize Micah 6: 8. 
 
 Special Assignments 
 Report from a book on French history the poverty of the masses 
 in France during the time of Louis XIV 
 
 Examples of the influence of wealth and luxurious surroundings 
 on youth. 
 
 Compare Theodore Roosevelt and Jeroboam. 
 
Part 6 
 
 LITERARY SELECTIONS FROM THE PERIOD 
 OF THE TWO RIVAL KINGDOMS FROM 
 937 TO 586 B. C. 
 
 Chapter XXVI 
 
 THE ELIJAH CYCLE 
 
 On Mount Carmel. I Kings 18:17-40. 
 The still, small voice. I Kings 19:1-14. 
 Naboth’s vineyard. I Kings 21. 
 
 1, Elijah, Forerunner of the Bookmaking Prophets. 
 
 The meteor-like appearances of Elijah give to the 
 cycle of stories which have elustered about his name 
 an element of mystery and power. Elijah was a 
 speaking prophet, giving his message in a few 
 words which were indelibly impressed on_ his 
 hearers. He reminds us of John the Baptist, not 
 only in his character, but also in his mission as a 
 forerunner. Elijah prepared the way for the won- 
 derful regime of the great prophets like Amos and 
 Isaiah. He was the herald of the principles of social 
 justice. 
 
 This strange son of the desert deeply stirred the 
 imagination of men by his dramatic deeds and his 
 apparent control of the destinies of men. Soon after 
 his death (approximately 850 B. C.) anecdotes about 
 his amazing career were gathered together and 
 handed down to successive generations. They form 
 
 136 
 
THE ELIJAH CYCLE rays 
 
 a large part of 1 Kings 17 to 2 Kings 2. “‘These 
 stories take us through thrilling adventures, pro- 
 ceeding from climax to climax.’’ 
 
 From the Elijah Cycle we select three scenes 
 which are typical of the career of this wild, solitary, 
 and romantic character. 
 
 2. The Scene on Mount Carmel. 
 
 God had sent a drought upon the land because of 
 the worship of the Tyrian Baal, which had been in- 
 troduced by the imperious and wicked wife of Ahab. 
 Paradise Lost alludes to this god and his female 
 counterpart in the following terms: 
 
 For those the race of Israel oft forsook 
 
 Their Living Strength, and unfrequented left 
 His righteous altar, bowing lowly down 
 
 To bestial gods; for which their heads, as low 
 Bowed down in battle, sunk before the spear 
 
 Of despicable foes. 
 
 The national distress brought Ahab to consult with 
 the prophet of God. Elijah proposed a test to show 
 whether God or Baal was worthy to be worshipped. 
 Read the narrative in its three phases: the challenge, 
 18 :2:24; failure of the prophets of Baal, 25-29; the 
 vindication of Jehovah, 30-39. Note in the prayer 
 of Elijah (vv. 36-37) the literary values of simplic- 
 ity, humility, conviction, and purpose. 
 
 3. The Still, Small Voice. 
 
 The New Century Bible says: ‘‘Elijah is made to 
 realize the presence of God in an experience which 
 for grandeur and depth of conception could hardly 
 be surpassed in literature. The Lord passes by 
 arrayed in the terrors of storm, earthquake, and. 
 fire; but none of these brings home to the prophet 
 the immediate sense of God. It is only in the audi- © 
 
138 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 ble stillness which succeeds the fire that he feels the 
 mysterious attraction of the Divine, and, wrapping 
 his face in his mantle, comes forth to the entrance 
 of the cave.’’ The student should put in his own 
 words the three picturesque scenes of this incident: 
 (1) verses 1-3, The angry queen and the despairing 
 prophet; (2) verses 4-7, Under the juniper tree; (3) 
 verses 9a, 12 to 14, Experiences in the mountain 
 cave. 
 
 4, Naboth’s Vineyard. 
 
 Here is a lecture on social justice, put into story 
 form. Read the story by the following outline: 
 
 I Kings 21:1-4, Naboth refuses to sell his home. 
 5-10, Jezebel has a plan to get the vineyard. 
 11-13, Naboth falsely accused in court. 
 14-16, Ahab takes possession of the vineyard. 
 17-24, Elijah curses Ahab and foretells Jezebel’s 
 terrible death. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 
 1. What was the origin of the ‘Elijah Cycle” of stories? 
 2. An outline in ten sentences of the scene on Mount Carmel, 
 I Kings 18 : 17-40. 
 3. An outline in ten sentences of the story of Naboth’s vineyard, 
 I Kings 21. 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 Compare Elijah with John the Baptist. 
 
 The effect of worship of evil gods on human character. See 
 quotation from Milton. 
 
 What is the teaching of the scene at the cave? I Kings 19: 1-14. 
 
 Was Jezebel or Elijah at fault in the case of Naboth’s vineyard? 
 
 Special Assignment 
 
 Political and moral perils for Israel in Tyrian Baalism involved 
 in the alliance between Ahab and Jezebel. See Bailey and 
 Kent, Hebrew Commonwealth, pp. 160, 161, or other books. 
 
 Quote the oratorio of Zlijah to show the composer’s indebtedness 
 to the Bible. 
 
Chapter XX VII 
 
 THE PROPHET IN KING’S COURTS 
 
 Saving a Syrian general. II Kings 5:1-19. 
 Winning a victory for Israel. II Kings 6:8-23. 
 Making a king in Damascus. II Kings 8:7-15. 
 Anointing Jehu king. II Kings 9:1-13. 
 
 The arrows of victory. II Kings 13:14-17. 
 
 1. Introduction. The Contrast between Elijah and 
 Elisha, 
 
 The stories about Elisha are so often alluded to 
 in modern literature that students should seek to 
 know them well. Elisha was very different from 
 Elijah. Elisha was the friend and counselor of 
 many kings, and a social and friendly person, while 
 Elijah was solitary, the enemy of kings, and a repre- 
 sentative of the condemning and terrifying spirit of 
 justice. 
 
 William Lyon Phelps, in his Human Nature in the 
 Bible, says of Elisha: 
 
 He is one of the grandest figures in Hebrew history. His 
 importance and influence are marked by the extraordinary 
 number of miracles he performed; his career was filled 
 with amazing adventures. He must have found life tre- 
 mendously interesting, for there was scarcely a day with- 
 out excitement. Although his personality lacks the roman- 
 tie gloom enveloping the lonely figure of Elijah, the dis- 
 ciple became more powerful than his teacher, exerting a 
 deep influence on both Israelites and aliens. Seldom has 
 so distinguished a career been told in so few words; the 
 sayings and deeds of Elisha are immortal both in litera- 
 ture and in their moral influence; yet his entire biography 
 covers only a dozen chapters in the Bible. The first meet- 
 ing of Elijah and Elisha is charming. The former had 
 
 139 
 
140 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 left the cave where he had listened to the still small voice, 
 and had walked directly to a great farm. There he found 
 Elisha, the son of Shaphat, plowing with twelve yoke of 
 oxen before him, and he with the twelfth. Does this mean 
 that the young man was driving twenty-four oxen in 
 pairs before the plow? If so, he must have been a more 
 skillful driver than Ben-Hur, and the soil must have been 
 tougher than the Puritans found in New England. 
 
 2. Saving a Syrian General. 
 
 Henry Van Dyke has dramatized this story of 
 Naaman in his House of Rimmon, which students 
 should read in connection with this chapter. He 
 gives much space in his drama to the little Hebrew 
 maid who saved Naaman’s life, and describes the 
 Syrian general as a noble character with a fine spirit 
 of worship. He makes Naaman say, 
 
 Grant me a portion of the blessed soil 
 
 Of this most favored land where I have found 
 His mercy; in Damascus will I build 
 
 An altar to his name, and praise Him there 
 Morning and night. 
 
 Arrange the Bible story in five scenes: (1) 5:1-4, 
 Palace in Damascus; (2) 5-8, Consternation in the 
 palace at Samaria; (38) 10-12, Naaman before the 
 cottage of Elisha; (4) 13, 14, By the river Jordan; 
 (5) 15-19, A new altar. 
 
 3. Winning a Victory for Israel. 
 
 In this incident the outstanding facts are: Syria 
 with its capital at Damascus is at war with Israel, 
 of which the capital was Samaria; the curious 
 deliverance of Israel from time to time, which the 
 king of Syria suspects was due to treachery; the 
 thwarting of the night attempt to capture Elisha; 
 and the bloodless victory secured by Elisha. 
 
 Special attention should be called to the art of 
 
THE PROPHET IN KING’S COURT 141 
 
 the writer in making such skillful use of the element 
 of surprise. See verses 12, 17, 22. 
 
 4. Making a King in Damascus. 
 
 The healing of Naaman must have given Elisha 
 a great reputation in Damascus. Observe the ex- 
 pensive gifts which the king at Damascus made to 
 Elisha on the occasion of the latter’s visit to the 
 city. It is difficult to explain Elisha’s power over 
 the destiny of the royal house of Damascus, or, if 
 you prefer, his foresight and power of predicting 
 future events. 
 
 5. The Anointing of Jehu. 
 
 Jehu, the captain of a company of Israelites 
 guarding Israel’s frontier at Ramoth-Gilead, is sit- 
 ting before his tent after the evening meal. A 
 messenger, sent by the prophet Elisha, comes run- 
 ning to him, asks him to step inside the tent, and 
 there anoints him as the next king of Israel. The 
 messenger then gives Jehu a charge to destroy the 
 whole house of Ahab, and disappears as mysterious- 
 ly as he came. 
 
 6. The Arrows of Victory. 
 
 This is the last scene in the life of the patriot- 
 prophet. The king of Israel himself has come to 
 the little white cottage near Samaria to visit Elisha 
 in his illness. He praises the prophet and pays him 
 a great tribute. Elisha, thus called back for a 
 moment to the thoughts of his beloved country, for 
 which he has worked and planned through over fifty 
 years of strenuous activity, asks that the window of 
 his room, looking toward Damascus, be opened, 
 
142 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 places his hands upon those of the king, and bids 
 his royal master shoot the Lord’s arrow of victory. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 
 1. Describe the first meeting of Elijah and Elisha. 
 
 2. rian Ae element of surprise in the story in II Kings 
 
 3. What gifts did the king at Damascus make to Elisha on the 
 occasion of the latter’s visit to the city? 
 
 4. Where was Jehu when he was anointed. king? 
 
 5. Why did the dying Elisha tell the king to shoot Jehovah’s ar- 
 row of victory out of the window toward the east? 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 Was it bad policy for Elisha to be so friendly with kings? 
 
 Make a defense of Naaman for being indignant at the way he 
 was treated by Elisha in Samaria, 
 
 Why did Naaman take two loads of dirt from Samaria to Da- 
 mascus ? 
 
 What was the difference between that day and ours regarding 
 the belief in gods? 
 
 What did King Joash mean by his statement in II Kings 13: 14, 
 “My father, the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof”? 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 Fom Milton’s Paradise Lost, Book I, quote ten lines concerning 
 the leper Naaman, worshipper of the god Rimmon. 
 
 Tell to the class the story of Naaman with the addition that Van 
 Dyke makes in his House of Rimmon. 
 
 Write an outline of Jehu’s career as you find it narrated in dif- 
 ferent parts of the Old Testament. Look up Jehu in a con- 
 cordance of the Bible. 
 
Chapter XXVIII 
 
 ISAIAH, THE YOUNG PROPHET AND POET 
 
 The story of his call. Isaiah 6. 
 Parable of the vineyard. Isaiah 5:1-7. 
 A psalm of triumph. Psalm 46. 
 
 1. The New Epoch in Literature and Religion. 
 
 Between the middle of the eighth and sixth cen- 
 turies before Christ, a galaxy of orators and writers 
 appeared that has not been surpassed in literary 
 brilliancy and historical effectiveness in any equal 
 period in human history. Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and 
 Micah were the first men to write complete books in 
 Israel; they were the first to break away from the 
 ritualistic religion of the ancients; and they laid 
 the foundations of Christianity and of modern 
 thought about God, man’s religious duty, and the 
 ideals of social justice. 
 
 In the thought of the world, Isaiah stands out 
 above all these prophets as the greatest leader in 
 religion and literature before the time of Christ. 
 Bewer says; ‘‘The splendor of his diction, the 
 wealth of his imagery, the amazing variety of his 
 style, now grand and majestic, powerful and sweep- 
 ing, now gentle and sweet, moving as if full of silent 
 tears, mark him out as the prince of Hebrew orators. 
 But he was greater than his style and his words. 
 He had penetrated through outward appearances to 
 the underlying reality, had seen the One who directs 
 all movements of history, had understood His char- 
 acter and purpose, and thus was enabled to inter- 
 
 143 
 
144 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 pret Him to his people and to unfold His plan in the 
 events of the nations.”’ 
 
 2. The Story of Isaiah’s Call. 
 
 The young man who was to play so great a part 
 in Israel’s life was called to his high service by a 
 great national loss. It was announced one morning 
 that the king was dead. Jerusalem was deeply 
 moved, even as England was at the death of Queen 
 Victoria. Among the throng that filled the palace 
 to pay the last tribute of respect before the bier of 
 the dead sovereign was the patriotic young Jew, 
 Isaiah, who was himself of noble lineage, and possi- 
 bly a relative of the king. 
 
 From the palace Isaiah, burdened with the sense 
 of tragedy and with the feeling that hig little nation 
 was now passing through a crisis, went to the temple 
 to pray. Then his call came to him in a remarkable 
 vision which he wrote out, years later, and which 
 we now find in chapter 6 of his prophecies. <A. R. 
 Gordon, in The Prophets of the Old Testament, gives 
 a good description of the vision. 
 
 As he prayed, the outward symbolism of worship vanished, 
 and the eternal realities themselves were unveiled before 
 his spiritual imagination. In the holy place, where the 
 Ark stood as the emblem of the Divine, he now saw the 
 Lord Jahweh seated as King upon a throne ‘‘high and 
 lifted up,’’ beyond all contact with human imperfection 
 and sin, the skirts of His flowing robes filling the Temple 
 — in other words, His royal presence permeating the 
 sanctuary and going out thence to bless and gladden the 
 world. Around His throne the choirs that pealed out their 
 joyous music in the Temple seemed now transformed into 
 shining companies of seraphim, whose voices were raised 
 in responsive chorus: 
 
 Holy, holy, holy is Jahweh of hosts; 
 The whole earth is full of His glory. 
 
ISAIAH, THE YOUNG PROPHET AND POET 145 
 
 But not by lip alone did these bright spirits minister to 
 their King. Each one had six wings—two to cover his 
 face, in token of reverence, two to cover his ‘‘feet’’ (the 
 lower parts of his body), a delicate suggestion of purity, 
 and two for flight, to speed on His Divine commissions 
 “¢o’er land and ocean without rest’’—the three pairs thus 
 finely symbolizing the threefold worship that God loves and 
 expects of His children—reverence, purity and service. 
 The sight of such transcendent holiness, Isaiah could not 
 yet endure. In his nervous dread the very foundations of 
 the threshold seemed to shake beneath him, and a great 
 cloud arose to obstruct his gaze—the darkness of his own 
 impurity showing thick and black before the dazzling 
 radiance of God’s glory. And for the moment he felt 
 himself undone. ‘‘Woe is me! for I am undone; because 
 I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell amidst a people 
 of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, even 
 Jahweh of hosts.’’ 
 
 Visions have been characteristic of great religious 
 leaders. Paul, Savonarola, Luther, and Christ (in 
 the wilderness) had mental experiences which they 
 afterwards described to their followers in words that 
 moved them to action. Isaiah’s call as given in chap- 
 ter 6 had several elements that are typical: he had a 
 vision of God, a sense of his unworthiness and of 
 God’s forgiving love; he saw the needs of humanity, 
 and then, in a self-denying spirit, volunteered for 
 service. 
 
 8. The Parable of the Vineyard. 
 
 Isaiah’s personality, oratorical ability, and unu- 
 sual poetic gift enabled him to make a deep impres- 
 sion on his generation; but the most surprising 
 thing to us is the wide variety of methods which he 
 used in seeking to influence public opinion. We see 
 him preaching a wonderful sermon from the tem- 
 ple steps as in chapter 2, or carrying through the 
 streets of Jerusalem a great poster inscribed, 
 
146 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 ‘“Speed, spoil, hurry, prey’’ as in chapter 8, or fear- 
 lessly rebuking the king and the court in a public 
 place as in chapter 7, or ‘‘ walking naked and bare- 
 foot’’ as in chapter 20, or chanting the words of his 
 message, set to a popular gong, as in chapter 5. 
 
 This parable. of the vineyard in chapter 5 was 
 given in some big vineyard near the city or perhaps 
 in the city square, in the time of the grape harvest. 
 We can imagine how easily a crowd was gathered 
 in those ancient days when there was so little to 
 attract attention. Isaiah chants his parable, and, 
 when the people have become interested, he applies 
 the warning it contains directly to the crowd. By 
 a most effective play on words, he made the lesson 
 stick in their memory. 
 
 For the vineyard of Yahweh of hosts is the house of Israel, 
 
 and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: 
 And He looked for justice (mishpat), but behold oppression 
 
 (mispah), for righteousness (sedhakah), but behold a 
 ery (seakah). 
 
 4. A Psalm of Triumph. 
 
 This psalm has been frequently credited to Isaiah 
 and is very appropiate to one of the great occasions 
 of his life. In 701 B. C. Sennacherib, king of Assy- 
 ria, invaded Palestine and threatened to destroy 
 utterly Judah and Jerusalem. Two hundred thous- 
 and strong, and with a reputation of reckless cruel- 
 ty, this army inspired terror in the hearts of all the 
 Hebrews. The officers demanded that the gates of 
 Jerusalem be opened, but Hezekiah delayed and 
 asked counsel of the prophet Isaiah. The prophet 
 prayed for guidance himself, and then assured Hez- 
 ekiah that God would save the city. Next morning, 
 it was found that a plague had destroyed much of 
 
ISAIAH, THE YOUNG PROPHET AND POET 147 
 
 the enemy’s forces and had frightened the rest 
 away. See a full account in 2 Kings 18 :13-19:37, 
 and the parallel account in Chronicles, and also in 
 Isaiah 37. An Assyrian tablet has been discovered 
 which seems to verify this remarkable story of the 
 destruction of the army. 
 
 Psalm 46 was chanted by the choirs, as a great 
 procession went to the temple to celebrate this ex- 
 traordinary deliverance of the city. 
 
 God is our refuge and strength 
 A very present help in trouble. 
 
 This psalm is very symmetrical having three stan- 
 zas of equal length, the last stanzas being followed 
 by the refrain, 
 
 Jehovah of hosts is with us, 
 The God of Jacob is our refuge. 
 
 This refrain is missing from the first stanza and 
 without doubt was dropped accidentally in the pro- 
 cess of transmission. 
 
 The religious teachings of this psalm are many 
 and helpful. Perhaps the most unusual is that con- 
 tained in verse 4, which is a figure of God’s grace 
 based on the channel of water that flowed into Jeru- 
 salem from a spring outside and upon which the 
 whole city depended in time of siege. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 1. The four men who wrote the first four complete books of our 
 Old Testament; three other ‘‘first”’ things which they did. 
 
 2. Cite examples of Isaiah’s (1) splendor of diction; (2) wealth 
 of imagery; (3) grand and majestic style. 
 
 3. Occasion of Isaiah’s call to service. 
 4, The four essential elements in his call (Isaiah 6). 
 
148 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 5. Name several strange methods which Isaiah used in his pub- 
 lic work. Isaiah 5, 7, 8, 20. 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 Was Isaiah in a state of trance or is Chapter 6 a figurative de- 
 scription of his experience? 
 What parable did Isaiah tell, and how did he apply it to the Jews? 
 Read aloud the refrain of Psalm 46. 
 
 What elements of Isaiah’s call to service are a part of the experi- 
 ence of a modern student volunteer? 
 
 What other prophets of the Old Testament volunteered ? 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 Compare the vision of Paul in Acts 9 with that of Isaiah. 
 
 Show that Psalm 46 is adapted to the military situation in 
 Isaiah’s time. 
 
 Explain the reference to a “river” or “stream” in Psalm 46: 4, 
 Pp 
 
 Physical characteristics of Isaiah, if we may judge from the 
 famous painters. Describe Sargent’s Isaiah. 
 
Part 7 
 
 LITERARY SELECTIONS WITH THE BABY- 
 LONIAN EXILE AS A BACKGROUND 
 
 Chapter XXIX 
 
 THE POETRY OF HOPE 
 
 Comfort for the exiles. Isaiah 4:2-6. 
 A song of hope. Psalms 42 and 43. 
 
 1. There is a striking Difference between the Bible 
 and Pagan Literature. 
 
 The Bible writers were full of hope for the future 
 while the Greek and Roman writers believed that 
 the world was growing worse every year. ‘‘No 
 more precious legacy of thought has come down to 
 us from antiquity than this Hebrew conception of 
 a golden age to come. It is difficult to overestimate 
 the bracing moral influence of an ideal future. The 
 classic thought of Greece and Rome took an opposite 
 course; their age of gold was in the remote past; 
 the progress of time was a decline.’? (Modern 
 Reader’s Bible) 
 
 Two examples from Rome are given here. 
 Juvenal wrote, ‘‘A ninth age of the world is ours, 
 
 in wickedness greater than that of iron’’; and 
 Horace declared, 
 
 ‘“‘Our fathers, worse in their day than our grand- 
 sires, 
 149 
 
150 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 Begot us a still more degenerate race; 
 And soon will a worse brood than we are succeed 
 us.’’ 
 
 We have reason to be grateful that Browning, 
 Tennyson, Alfred Noyes, and other modern poets 
 who know the Bible so intimately have been domi- 
 nated by this element of hope. Two selections from 
 Browning will illustrate this. 
 
 I find earth not gray, but rosy, 
 Heaven not grim but fair of hue; 
 
 Do I stoop I pick a posy, 
 Do I stand and stare? all’s blue. 
 
 My own hope is, a sun will pierce 
 The thickest cloud earth ever stretched; 
 That after Last returns the First, 
 Though a wide compass round be fetched; 
 That what began best can’t end worst, 
 Nor what God blest once prove accurst. 
 
 2. Comfort for the Exiles. 
 
 From the many messages of hope in the Old Tes- 
 tament we select for this chapter one from Second 
 Isaiah and one from an unknown poet of the exile. 
 Israel has been away from the beautiful temple and 
 the Holy City for many years. In Babylon the Jews 
 find themselves among a rich and properous heathen 
 population; polytheism with its gorgeous temples 
 and magnificent worship is disheartening to the 
 faithful Israelites. They frequently hear the mock- 
 ing heathen say, ‘‘Where is now their God?’’ As 
 the years pass by, many Jews yield to the tempta- 
 tion to adopt the Babylonian customs, including the 
 religion; but a remnant in Israel remains faithful, 
 and to them the Great Unknown Prophet of the 
 exile comes with this wonderful message in Isaiah 
 
THE POETRY OF HOPE 151 
 
 4:2-6. He promises that a day shall come when 
 their broken nation shall be restored to its old-time 
 glory and happiness. The homeland shall again 
 become fruitful and be under the special protection 
 of the only true God. 
 
 This passage is called Messianic, because it forms 
 a part of that famous group of foreshadowings of 
 the future, examples of which are found in Isaiah 
 2:2-4; 7:14; 9:6,7; 11:1-9; Micah 5:2. These pro- 
 phecies unite two great expectations: the coming of 
 a perfect kingdom of God on earth, and the appear- 
 ance of a personal Messiah. Observe that ‘‘branch’’ 
 and the ‘‘escaped of Israel’? in Isaiah 4:2 refer 
 respectively to the people of Judah, and the exiles 
 who have returned from Babylon. 
 
 3. A Song of Hope. 
 
 In some way unknown to us one poem with the 
 keynote ‘‘Hope thou in God,’’ and with the same 
 theme, style, and spirit throughout, has been divided 
 in our Psalter into Psalms 42 and 43. Probably the 
 division took place at an early date for the purpose 
 of the temple worship. It is divided into three 
 parts by the refrain, 
 
 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? 
 Why art thou disquieted within me? 
 
 Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him, 
 Who is the help of my countenance and my God. 
 
 This poem ig notable for its striking figures of 
 speech (see 42:1,2,3,7) and for its tone of hope, 
 maintained under most depressing conditions. In 
 verse 1 there is a perfect example of progressive or 
 synthetic parallelism, in which the second line builds 
 up the thought of the first, giving an additional 
 
152 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 thought on the same note. An element of pathos 
 appears in 42:6,7, where the poet calls to mind the 
 familiar hills, which were the last thing visible as he 
 was going into exile, and the noise of their water- 
 falls which still resounded in his ears. 
 
 & 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 1. Give an example of the pessimism of the Greek and Roman 
 writers and one of the hopefulness of the biblical authors. 
 2. What does the ‘‘branch of the Lord”’ mean in Isaiah 4:2? 
 
 3. What shows (in Isaiah 4:2-6) that the Jerusalem of the 
 future will be characterized by goodness, justice, and pro- 
 tection for all? 
 
 4. Why is this passage called messianic? 
 
 5. Three arguments to show that Psalms 42 and 43 were origi- 
 nally one Psalm. 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 What was the dark historical background of the cheerful pas- 
 sages in this lesson? 
 
 Does a pleasant situation, of comfort and wealth, insure a happy 
 life? 
 
 What background is more likely to stimulate progress and hope- 
 fulness, if we may judge from past history? 
 
 In messianic prophecy is it necessary to have both the great ex- 
 pectations in one piece of writing? Give examples. 
 
 Were the enemies of the Hebrews justified in saying, ‘Where is 
 thy God”? Psalm 42:3. 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 Write a statement of the essentials of an optimistic view of life, 
 and read a poem of Robert Browning’s that embodies that 
 view. 
 
 Study Matthew Arnold’s Dover Beach as an example of the pes- 
 simistic view of life. 
 
 Describe the difference between synonymous and _ progressive 
 parallelisms, and give examples from Psalms 42, 43. 
 
Chapter XXX 
 
 SOME ADVENTURES OF DANIEL AT THE 
 BABYLONIAN COURT 
 Three conscientious objectors. Daniel 1. 
 
 The feast of Belshazzar. Daniel 5. 
 Daniel in the lion’s den. Daniel 6. 
 
 1. Historical Setting. 
 
 In studying wonderful old stories like these, we 
 should distinguish between the circumstances under 
 which the stories were first told and the new occa- 
 sions which influenced the author to put them into 
 written form. 
 
 The ancient hero, Daniel, had his remarkable 
 visions, according to the traditional view, during 
 the Babylonian exile in the years following 597 B. 
 C. Modern scholars believe that these visions were 
 first put into written form hundreds of years later, 
 when the Jews were suffering at the hands of the 
 Greeks under Antiochus Epiphanes, who had his 
 official residence in Antioch, Syria. These remark- 
 able experiences of Daniel were written for the en- 
 couragement and strengthening of the Jews that 
 they might endure the awful persecutions without 
 giving up their faith in Jehovah. The Greek king 
 offered every inducement to the people, the oppor- 
 tunities of financial gain through trade, of a life 
 of pleasure, and of Greek culture, in order to lure 
 them from the faith of their fathers. When they 
 refused, he levelled the city walls, tortured and 
 
 murdered many of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and 
 153 
 
154 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 made life almost unendurable to the faithful. To 
 them the book of Daniel was a great support, and 
 was probably a decisive factor in the preservation 
 of the Jewish nation. The approximate date of the 
 book is 165 B. C. 
 
 2. The Conscientious Ob jectors. 
 
 Daniel 1 tells the story of four Jewish young men 
 of noble birth, fine physique, and good education 
 who were selected by the king of Babylon that they 
 might be specially trained for high office in his 
 court. We should remember how dazzling and at- 
 tractive the city of Babylon, with its hanging gar- 
 dens, glittering temples, broad streets, and wonder- 
 ful canals, plentifully supplied with water by the 
 Euphrates, was to boys who had been brought up 
 in the little rock-bound city of Jerusalem. It is no 
 wonder that they were tempted to be disloyal to — 
 their own customs when in a great foreign city they 
 were offered a chance to prepare for high office in 
 the brilliant court of Nebuchadrezzar. Read the 
 story, noting the reason for their refusal to eat the 
 choice food and to drink the wine from the king’s 
 tablet. The real reason was that the food, having 
 been offered to idols, would, according to Hebrew 
 law, ‘‘defile’? them. Compare 1 Corinthians 8:1. 
 
 3. The Feast of Belshazzar. 
 
 Cyrus the Great, having conquered the rest of the 
 Eastern world, came at last to take the city of Baby- 
 lon. On the very night before the fall of the city, 
 the royal family and the nobility with their guests 
 had a riotous banquet which is described in Daniel 
 5. Heine, in his Belshazzar describes it vividly. 
 
ADVENTURES OF DANIEL AT THE BABYLONIAN COURT 155 
 
 The Midnight hour was drawing nigh; 
 Babylon slumbered silently. 
 
 But in the palace of the King 
 
 Was flaring light and rioting. 
 
 Aloft there in the monarch’s hall 
 Belshazzar held high festival. 
 
 His minions sat in gleaming line 
 
 And drained the cups of sparkling wine. 
 The King’s cheeks flame as red as blood, 
 And wine hath made him bold of mood, 
 ‘And blindly urges him along 
 
 To blaspheme God with impious tongue. 
 But scarce was the daring taunt expressed 
 Ere secret terror filled the King’s breast. 
 The strident laughter died away; 
 
 Over all a death-like silence lay. 
 
 And see! and see! on the wall above, 
 
 A ghostly hand begins to move. 
 
 Read the story by the following analysis. 
 
 5:1-4, Belshazzar and his lords drink to the praise 
 of their idols in’the Hebrew golden vessels, taken 
 from the Temple at Jerusalem. 
 
 5-9, The handwriting on the wall. 
 
 10-12, The queen counsels the calling of Daniel. 
 
 13-16, Belshazzar offers gifts if Daniel will inter- 
 pret the vision. 
 
 17-30, The interpretation. 
 
 4. Daniel in the Lion’s Den. 
 
 Daniel not only refused to worship according to 
 the Babylonian decree, but also kept on praying to 
 his own God without any attempt at concealment. 
 He courageously met the test of faith, as many have 
 done since his day. It is helpful to remember in 
 this connection the story of Perpetua and Felicitas 
 in the second century, of Savonarola in Italy, and 
 Martin Luther in Germany. 
 
 Tell the story, noting the skillful use of the ele- 
 
156 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 ment of suspense, and the dramatic and vivid char- 
 acter of the narrative. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 
 1. For what purpose were the stories of Daniel written? 
 
 2. Why would the four Jewish young men described in Daniel I 
 be tempted to eat the “‘defiled”’ food? 
 
 3. Explain Heine’s reference to the “ghostly hand” that began 
 to move, by quoting the passage referred to. 
 
 4. What are the three most important religious teachings of the 
 stories in this lesson? 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 Would it not have been wiser for Daniel and his friends to 
 please the king rather than raise objections to his plan? 
 
 How was the Book of Daniel a decisive factor in the preservation 
 of the Jewish nation? 
 
 Give the story of Belshazzar’s feast. 
 
 Was Daniel’s worship better for him only, or would it have been 
 better for the Babylonians also? Why? 
 
 What argument can you make for the superior literary value of 
 ‘Daniel in the Lion’s Den’’? 
 
 Special Assignments 
 Read Longfellow’s Judas Maccabeus, Act II, and report the 
 story of the ‘Mother and Seven Sons.” 
 Describe the fate of Savonarola. 
 
 Why has the story of Belshazzar’s feast been so widely used in 
 the literature of the world? 
 
Chapter XXXI 
 THE SONG OF THE SUFFERING SERVANT 
 
 He hath borne our griefs. Isaiah 52:13-53:12. 
 1. Literary Features of the Prophecy. 
 
 In order to appreciate this most remarkable pro- 
 phetic poem of the Old Testament, it is helpful to 
 read it in the translation by George Adam Smith, 
 which, with headings prefixed to each stanza, is 
 given here. 
 
 My Servant Shall Prosper 
 
 Behold, my Servant shall prosper, 
 
 Shall rise, be lift up, be exceedingly high. 
 
 Like as they that were astonied before thee were many, 
 —So marred from a man’s was his visage, 
 
 And his form from the children of men!— 
 
 So shall the nations he startles be many, 
 
 Before him shall kings shut their mouths. 
 
 For that which had never been told them they see, 
 
 And what they had heard not, they have to consider. 
 
 Who Hath Believed 
 
 Who gave believing to that which we heard, 
 
 ‘And the arm of Jehovah to whom was it bared? 
 
 For he sprang like a sapling before Him, 
 
 As a root from the ground that is parched; 
 
 He had no form nor beauty that we should regard him, 
 Nor aspect that we should desire him. 
 
 Despised and rejected of men, 
 
 Man of pains and familiar with ailing, 
 
 And as one we do cover the face from, 
 
 Despised, and we did not esteem him. 
 
 157 
 
158 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 Surely He Hath Borne 
 
 Surely our ailments he bore, 
 
 And our pains he did take for his burden. 
 But we—we accounted him stricken, 
 
 Smitten of God and degraded. 
 
 Yet he—he was pierced for crimes that were ours, 
 He was crushed for guilt that was ours, 
 
 The chastisement of our peace was upon him, 
 By his stripes healing is ours. J 
 Of us all like to sheep went astray, 
 
 Every man to his way we did turn, 
 
 And Jehovah made light upon him 
 
 The guilt of us all. 
 
 He Was Oppressed 
 
 Oppressed, he did humble himself, 
 
 Nor opened his mouth— 
 
 As a lamb to the slaughter is led, 
 
 As a sheep ’fore her shearers is dumb— 
 
 Nor opened his mouth. 
 
 By tyranny and law was he taken; 
 
 And of his age who reflected, 
 
 That he was wrenched from the land of the living, 
 For My people’s transgressions the stroke was on him? 
 So they made with the wicked his grave, 
 
 Yea, with the felon his tomb. 
 
 Though never harm had he done, 
 
 Neither was guile in his mouth. 
 
 Yet It Pleased Jehovah 
 
 But Jehovah had purposed to bruise him, 
 
 Had laid on him sickness; 
 
 So if his life should offer guilt offering, 
 
 A seed he should see, he should lengthen his days. 
 
 And the purpose of Jehovah by his hand should prosper, 
 From the travail of his soul shall he see, 
 
 By his knowledge be satisfied. 
 
 My Servant, the Righteous, righteousness wins he for many, 
 And their guilt he takes for his load. 
 
 Therefore I set him a share with the great, 
 
 Yea, with the strong shall he share the spoil; 
 
 Because that he poured out his life unto death, 
 
 Let himself with transgressors be reckoned ; 
 
 Yea, he the sin of the many hath borne, 
 
 And for the transgressors he interposes. 
 
THE SONG OF THE SUFFERING SERVANT 159 
 
 Someone has said of this poem, ‘‘ Words beautiful, 
 enthralling words, familiar words, vibrant in tone, 
 rich in color, moving in pathos, exalted in diction.’’ 
 
 Among the many interesting features of these 
 yerses, note first the increase in the length of the 
 successive stanzas, which produces the impression 
 of increasing power and solemnity of the thought, 
 sweeping forward in the resistless volume of truth. 
 Second, the unusual effect produced by the use of 
 the pronouns. In the third stanza, for example, 
 ‘four’? and ‘‘he’’ are repeatedly used in contrast. 
 Third, the style is smooth, flowing, even redundant, 
 in contrast with First Isaiah whose language is 
 abrupt, brilliant, and terse. 
 
 2. The Historical Background. 
 
 This poem, like every other great piece of litera- 
 ture, grew out of a deep experience of life. The 
 author was born among a group of Hebrews, who 
 had been torn away from their own home in Jeru- 
 salem, and thrown into the midst of a great heathen 
 population. 
 
 During fifty years the Hebrews had lived in Baby- 
 lon where they had been deprived of their religious 
 privileges and their political rights. They were 
 now misunderstood, despised, and without hope. 
 (See Psalm 187 and Isaiah 48:20). Yet, during the 
 whole period of exile, that group of people which 
 was faithful to the old religion believed that God 
 had created Israel for a great purpose. For the 
 sake of comforting this group, and strengthening 
 them in their high purpose of rebuilding Jerusalem 
 and carrying on their great mission, the Second 
 Isaiah wrote his prophecy. 
 
160 BIBLICAL | LITERATURE 
 
 3. The Message. 
 Bewer, in his Literature of the Old Testament says: 
 
 ‘“We cannot cloud the glory of his essential message, which 
 is so great that we are still thrilled by it, especially when 
 we read those four poems in which he worked out his own 
 original contribution with singular beauty and magnanim- 
 ity, the so-called Poems of the Servant of Yahweh, (Isa. 
 42:1-4; 49:1-6; 50:4-9; 52:13-53:12), which we have not 
 touched upon so far. Here a profound interpretation of 
 Israel’s suffering is given in the light of her mission. The 
 problem of innocent suffering is solved by fixing the at- 
 tention upon its purpose, not upon the reason for it. Israel 
 is the servant of Yahweh. He is now despised and erushed, 
 without national existence, far from his own land, in exile, 
 But he is still Yahweh’s servant, through whom true 
 religion is to be established in all the world. It seems 
 impossible. All this work in exile must be vain; it means 
 but suffering and shame. But no, this very suffering is 
 part of Yahweh’s plan! Through it His purpose for the 
 world will be accomplished. ’’ 
 
 Who is the ‘‘Servant’’ that, as George Adam 
 Smith says, haunts this whole prophecy like a ghost? 
 No one can answer that question. W. J. Hutchins 
 believes: ‘‘Neither Israel, nor the Inner Circle of 
 Israelites nor yet Jeremiah, fills full the ideal pre- 
 sented here of the Suffering, Saving Servant of 
 Jehovah. The idea that the prophet looked for- 
 ward consciously down the centuries to the cross 
 of Jesus’ death, the garden of his burial, and his 
 resurrection, may not perhaps be dogmatically 
 denied, yet cannot be defended. But Jesus incar- 
 nated, enfleshed the ideal of the prophet.’’ 
 
 While we cannot identify the ‘‘Servant,’’ yet the 
 great idea which he personified is clear. ‘‘The poet 
 of the sixth century before Christ saw the fact, he 
 did not seek to explain it,—saw the universal fact 
 that he who comes close to God and seeks to do his 
 
 will in service to man will be misunderstood, deemed 
 
THE SONG OF THE SUFFERING SERVANT 161 
 
 smitten of God, despised and rejected of men. The 
 history of civilization—the martyrs of philosophy, 
 science, political liberty, as well as of religion, 
 declare that the ancient poet saw the deep things of 
 life as they are. The great servants of God, 
 whether their service has been in the cause of ad- 
 vancing knowledge or righteousness, have been and 
 still must be despised and rejected of men, men of 
 sorrows and acquainted with grief. In the lower 
 realms of life, animal and human, we may find the 
 law of tooth and claw; in the higher realms, the law 
 of the soul an offering for sin prevails. This law 
 unites man to man and man to God.’’ (Henry T. 
 Fowler) 
 
 This prophet brought comfort and hope to the 
 exiles, strengthened their purpose to ‘‘carry on,’’ 
 and promised a leader who should embody their 
 high ideals) The New Testament writers saw in 
 Jesus Christ a fulfilment of that promise. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 
 1. Out of what experience did this poem grow? 
 
 2. What is the effect produced by the increase of length in 
 the successive stanzas of the ‘Song of the Suffering Ser- 
 vant’? 
 
 3. What five thoughts are expressed in the five stanzas? 
 4, What universal fact does the “Servant” exemplify? 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 Is the “‘Servant’”’ identical with the Messiah in Isaiah 9: 6, 7? 
 Did ae of Nazareth fulfil the expectations of Isaiah 52: 13- 
 53: 12 
 
162 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 Whe ne the meaning of “Jehovah had purposed to bruise 
 im”? 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 Report the substance of the other ‘‘Poems of the Servant,” 
 Isaiah 42: 1-4; 49: 1-6; 50: 4-9. 
 
Part 8 
 
 LITERARY SELECTIONS FROM THE PERSIAN 
 AND GREEK PERIODS OF JEWISH HISTORY 
 
 Chapter XXXII 
 
 THE STORY OF JONAH 
 The Book of Jonah. Four chapters. 
 
 1. The Historical Setting. 
 
 In the time of Ezra the Jews had become very 
 exclusive, and did not wish to admit into their mem- 
 bership any foreigners. Ezra had brought back 
 from Babylon the priestly law, and, in the process 
 of reconstructing Jewish life, had driven out from 
 Jerusalem the heathen wives of many Jews who, 
 without meaning any harm, had married foreign 
 women. This harsh measure introduced by Ezra 
 had broken up many happy homes. Before long, 
 a party of opposition arose, based upon more lib- 
 eral ideas. It is supposed that one of the liberal 
 party wrote the story of Jonah as a protest against 
 the narrow ideas of the new legal regime. 
 
 It is probable that the author based his story on 
 a reference in 2. Kings 14:25 to a certain prophet 
 Jonah, who was associated with King Jeroboam I 
 in his wars. Jonah is pictured as a narrow-minded 
 nationalist whom God rebukes for his exclusiveness. 
 
 It is instructive to compare the book of Jonah 
 163 
 
164 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 with the book of Ruth, which probably came from 
 the same period of history. 
 
 2. The Plot, 
 
 Study the development of the plot by the help of 
 the following outline: 
 
 Jonah 1:1, The prophet impressed into service. 
 :3, He eludes responsibility. 
 
 :4-10, The storm at sea. 
 
 :11-16, Jonah is thrown overboard. 
 
 7:17-2:10, An amazing rescue. 
 
 :1-4, Jonah obeys the second command to service. 
 :5-10, Nineveh repents. 
 
 :1-5, The moping bigot. 
 
 :6-11, The lesson of the gourd. 
 
 He HA 9 09 bet et pe 
 
 3. The Literary Form. 
 Scholars differ in their view of this book. 
 
 **Ts the book history? is it an ancient tradition developed 
 into a story, largely imaginative? is it a parable or al- 
 legory? All three views have been maintained; one may 
 hold either view that is found convincing, but if one 
 loses sight of the conception of God that this book con- 
 tains, he will never know to what sublime height the 
 Old Testament thought rose.’? (Henry T. Fowler) 
 
 George Adam Smith ealls attention to the diff- 
 culty of taking literally such statements as Jonah’s 
 rescue by the fish, and the conversion of the great 
 city of Nineveh in one day. He calls the story of 
 Jonah a parable. 
 
 Jeremiah 51:34,44 suggests the allegorical inter- 
 pretation of the book: ‘‘Babylon hath devoured me, 
 he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty ves- 
 sel, he hath, like a monster, swallowed me up, he 
 hath filled his maw with my delicacies; he hath cast 
 me out.’’ And again, ‘‘And I will bring forth out 
 of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up; and 
 
 =~ 
 
THE STORY OF JONAH 165 
 
 the nations shall not flow any more unto him.”’ 
 Babylon is here conceived as a great fish that swal- 
 lowed Israel in the time of the exile, and afterward 
 east the nation out. 
 
 This evidence from Jeremiah is strengthened by 
 the fact that the name Jonah means ‘‘dove,’’ and 
 was used as a symbolical name for Israel, as in 
 Psalm 74:19, ‘‘Oh, deliver not thy turtle dove to 
 the wild beast.’’ These usages made it easy for a 
 later writer to compose an allegory in which Jonah 
 represented Israel, and the great fish stood for Baby- 
 lon. 
 
 If we do not neglect the wonderful message of 
 the book, it does not matter very much which opin- 
 ion we adopt. The most recent author on the liter- 
 ature of the Old Testament (Bewer) states his opin- 
 ion in a rather convincing way: 
 
 Jonah ‘‘was no narrative of historical facts but a prose 
 poem with a purpose, and the fish story, far from being 
 unique, has turned out to be quite common the world over. 
 Such tales of miraculous deliverance, with many variations 
 of detail, were told by many peoples; maritime people 
 spoke of a huge fish or a sea monster, inland people of 
 a wolf or a dragon or bear. And just at Joppa the Greeks 
 located the story of Perseus and Andromeda, with his fight 
 inside the sea monster. The author took this bit of 
 folklore and used it as a means of transporting Jonah back 
 to the land. He never thought that readers would be so 
 much without poetical imagination as to strip it of its 
 fantastic beauty and nullify the wonderful lesson he had 
 to teach in the sequel.’’ 
 
 4, The Teaching of Jonah. 
 
 The book of Jonah reaches a loftier height than 
 any other book in the Old Testament in the presen- 
 tation of the love of God for heathen nations. The 
 last verse suggests that same broad love of the uni- 
 
166 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 versal Father which Jesus proclaimed. Professor 
 Wild, in her Interary Guide to the Bible, says: 
 
 ‘‘This book of Jonah rises to the climax of spiritual vision 
 in the Old Testament in its realization of the universal 
 character of God’s love. Its theme is the same as the 
 famous phrase of Faber’s hymn, ‘‘ There is a wideness in 
 God’s mercy.’’ Compare this picture of the yearning 
 love of God for all peoples with the parables in the 
 fifteenth chapter of Luke which represent His intense love 
 for the individual, and also with the parable of The Good 
 Samaritan which is more of a parallel, in that it pictures 
 the breaking down of racial prejudice.’’ 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 
 Read the Book of Jonah through rapidly and answer the follow- 
 
 ing questions: 
 
 . What did God command Jonah to do? 
 
 . Why did Jonah take ship for Tartessus, Spain? 
 
 . How did the captain find out who was guilty of causing the 
 storm? 
 
 What shows that the sailors were very religious? 
 
 . How long did Jonah require to convert Nineveh? 
 
 . Why did the repentance of Nineveh displease Jonah? 
 
 What verse shows God’s love for the heathen city? 
 
 . For what did God rebuke Jonah? 
 
 ONAN WHR 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 Was Ezra too exclusive and too severe? 
 
 What party in Jerusalem was represented by Ruth and Jonah? 
 
 haan to this view what was the main point in each of these 
 ooks? 
 
 What New Testament parable presents the same view? 
 
 When has a nation the moral right to exclude foreigners? 
 
 Is the Book of Jonah historical? 
 
 What is the meaning of the name Jonah, and how does that add 
 
 weight to the allegorical interpretation? 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 Write a statement of the bearing of Jeremiah 51:34, 44 on the 
 literary form of Jonah. 
 Write an essay on Jonah as a missionary book. 
 
Chapter XX XIII 
 BIBLICAL NATURE LYRICS 
 
 The thunderstorm. Psalm 29. 
 Nature, the garment of God. Psalm 104. 
 The voice from the whirlwind. Job 38. 
 
 1. Introduction. The Contrast Between the He- 
 brews, and the Greeks and Babylonians in the 
 Conception of Nature. 
 
 The Hebrews had outgrown the child-like fancies 
 of the Greeks and Babylonians. To them ‘‘the 
 mountains, winds, water, and the stars above, were 
 not gods, not peopled with gods or demigods.’’ The 
 Hebrew poets, in their treatment of nature, were 
 very much like the poets of the nineteenth century. 
 As Wordsworth and Tennyson regarded nature as 
 itself living, rather than peopled with spirits, so the 
 Hebrews thought of the life in nature as the very 
 life of God. 
 
 This attitude to nature, found among the Bible 
 writers, will be best understood by those who have 
 had certain experiences out of doors. Have you 
 ever been on a hillside, just before a great storm? 
 There is a hush that all creatures feel. The animals 
 are in terror, and the sky is wild and unnatural in 
 its yellow glow. With the oncoming of the thunder, 
 wind, and rain, the very trees try to hide themselves. 
 All nature seems conscious, not because all its as- 
 pects represent individual gods, as the Greeks 
 
 thought, but because of a presence that permeates 
 167 
 
168 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 everything. Wordsworth and the Hebrew poets 
 agree in that. 
 “*And I have felt 
 A presence that disturbed me with the joy 
 Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime 
 Of something far more deeply interfused, 
 Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, 
 And the round ocean and the living air, 
 And the blue sky, and in the mind of man; 
 A motion and a spirit, that impels 
 All thinking things, all objects of all thought, 
 And rolls through all things.’’ 
 
 Almost every phase of the natural world ig pic- 
 tured in the Old Testament: the sun in Psalm 19, 
 the green pastures in Psalm 23, the thunderstorm 
 in Psalm 29, nature as the garment of God in Psalm 
 104, the rain in Psalm 77, and the whirlwind in Job 
 38. “‘Reverent affection for nature, the recognition 
 of it as an avenue of approach to God, is manifest 
 in the whole texture and fibre of their literature, 
 in single words and phrases, in metaphors and sim- 
 iles, in the flashes of inspiration which sparkle in 
 the midst of other themes.”’ 
 
 2. The Thunderstorm. 
 
 Imagine the poet standing on the slopes of Mt. 
 Hermon, watching the approach of a terrific storm. 
 He conceives the thunder to be the very voice of 
 God, and this Psalm, indeed, has been called the 
 song of the seven thunders. The shower breaks 
 with terrible force, tearing great limbs from the 
 Lebanon cedars, and the lightning shivers the giant 
 oaks. Finally, it disappears across the desert in a 
 wind storm, and peace reigns. 
 
 In the prelude of four lines the poet calls upon the 
 heavenly host; and in the postlude, consisting of 
 
BIBLICAL NATURE LYRICS 169 
 
 the last four lines, the poet ascribes power to the 
 God of all nations. If one will take the trouble to 
 write out the poem, separating the prelude and the 
 postlude from the fifteen lines which give the sub- 
 stance of the thought, and dividing these fifteen 
 lines into three stanzas of five lines each, he will 
 better appreciate both the art and the thought of 
 the poem. It is important to observe the expressive 
 words in which the fury of the storm is described, 
 and the repetition, seven times, of the word ‘‘voice”’ 
 which signifies thunder. The ‘‘flames of fire’’ stand 
 for the lightning. 
 
 The leading thought of the poem is suggested by 
 the word ‘‘glory’’ in verse 9. It expresses that 
 exultant joy in the phenomena of nature, which 
 persons of poetic temperament often feel in a great 
 storm. The most important religious idea is found 
 in the last four lines, which suggest the sense of 
 the security of those who belong to God. Compare 
 with these last four lines, Edwin Markham’s The 
 Place of Peace. 
 
 At the heart of the cyclone tearing the sky 
 
 And flinging the clouds and the towers by, 
 
 Is a place of central calm; 
 
 So here in the roar of mortal things, 
 
 I have a place where my spirit sings, 
 In the hollow of God’s Palm. 
 
 3. Nature as the Garment of God. 
 
 Psalm 104 ‘‘gives a charming and highly poetic 
 version of the creation-story’’ in Genesis. It stands 
 in contrast with Psalm 103, which describes the 
 revelation of God in human history. Psalm 104 
 praises God for the revelation of His character in 
 the creation and sustenance of the universe. The 
 
170 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 suggestion, everywhere appearing in this poem, that 
 nature is but a garment that covers the spirit of 
 God, has a wonderful parallel in a poem written by 
 King Ikhnaton in Egypt in the fourteenth century 
 before Christ. 
 
 O loving Aton, beginning of life! 
 
 When thou riseth in the Eastern horizon, 
 
 Thou fillest every land with thy beauty, 
 
 All cattle rest upon their pasturage, 
 
 The trees and the plants flourish, 
 
 The birds flutter in their marshes, 
 
 Their wings uplifted in adoration to the Sun, 
 
 All the sheep dance upon their feet, 
 
 All winged things fly, 
 ‘They live when thou hast shone upon them. 
 
 4, The Voice out of the Whirlwind. 
 
 Job 88 should be read in connection with the 
 whole book if one wishes to get the full meaning of 
 it, for the ‘‘ voice from the whirlwind’’ is the climax 
 of the plot of the book. By itself, however, chapter 
 38 is worthy of study. 
 
 Observe, first, how many different elements of 
 nature are described in beautiful poetic phrase. In 
 these phrases one feels the response of the worship- 
 ful spirit of the writer to the divine spirit manifest 
 in all the powers of nature. In Sherman’s Manu- 
 scripts of God man’s ability to respond to a multitude 
 of things in nature is well described. 
 
 ‘‘Between the Alps and the tiniest blossom that must be 
 wooed out of its hiding place, what unnumbered millions 
 of things there are that can move him, either to a pianis- 
 simo response, or to thoughts and feelings that lie too deep 
 for tears. Through his five senses,—and one knows not 
 how many more—life continually plays upon a myriad 
 strings which respond in thought and feeling, now waking 
 
 melodies no man has ever been able wholly to transcribe 
 or discords which spur him on to more perfect harmonies, ’? 
 
BIBLICAL NATURE LYRICS 171 
 
 In the second place, study the figures of speech in 
 which this poet, perhaps the most brilliant that ever 
 dealt with religious subjects, expressed his thoughts 
 of God in nature. Explain the meaning of the fol- 
 lowing figures: ‘‘when the morning stars sang,”’ 
 ‘‘who shut up the sea with doors,’’ ‘‘take hold of the 
 ends of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out,”’ 
 ‘‘changed as the clay under the seal,’’ “‘gates of 
 death,’’ ‘‘treasuries of the snow,’’ ‘‘bind the cluster 
 of the Pleiades,’’ ‘‘loose the bands of Orion,’’ ‘‘pour 
 out the bottles of heaven.’’ 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 1. How do the Hebrews differ from the Greeks in their view of 
 nature? 
 
 2. Quote two or three lines from Tennyson or Wordsworth to 
 show that they agreed with the Hebrews in their view of 
 
 nature. 
 3. What is the leading idea of Psalm 29? 
 4. What is the difference between Psalms 104 and 103? 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 What member of the class can find the most references in the 
 Bible to objects of nature? 
 Does Job 38 make the reader feel humble? Why? 
 
 What is the meaning of ‘‘When the morning stars sang to- 
 gether’? 
 
 Quote a metaphor from Job 38. 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 A comparison of the Egyptian Hymn to Ikhnaton with Psalm 
 104. How many parallel thoughts in the two poems? See 
 Breasted, History of the Ancient Egyptians, pp. 279 ff 
 
 A complete list of the figures of speech in Job 38. 
 
Chapter XXXIV 
 AN IMPRESSIONIST PICTURE OF OLD AGE 
 
 Ai poem on old age. Ecclesiastes 11:9-12:8. 
 
 1. The Structure of the Poem. 
 
 This is the best description of old age in all liter- 
 ature. Genung in his Words of Koheleth declares 
 that ‘“‘it is the acknowledged highwater mark of 
 poetic utterance. One is reminded of the Ninth 
 Symphony of Beethoven, wherein, the utmost re- 
 sources of orchestra proving inadequate to his 
 mighty musical conception, he must needs supple- 
 ment wood and strings and brass by a chorus of 
 living human voices.’’ 
 
 If we print the poem in poetic form, the beauty of 
 the structure is more evident. 
 
 Before the sun is darkened, 
 and the light of the moon and the stars, 
 and the clouds return after the rain; 
 In the day when the keepers of the house shall cranehtes 
 and the strong men shall bow themselves, 
 And the grinders cease, because they are ‘few, 
 and those that look out of the windows be darkened, 
 and the doors shall be shut in the street; 
 When the sound of the grinding is low, 
 and one rises at the voice of the birds, 
 and all tho daughters of music are brought low: 
 Yea, one is afraid of a height, 
 and terrors are in the way; 
 And the almond-tree shall blossom, 
 and the grasshopper shall be a burden, 
 and the caperberry shall burst, 
 Because man goes to his everlasting home, 
 and the mourners go about the streets: 
 172 
 
AN IMPRESSIONIST PICTURE OF OLD AGE 173 
 
 Before the silver cord is snapped, 
 
 or the golden bowl is broken, 
 Or the pitcher is broken at the fountain, 
 
 or the wheel is broken at the cistern, 
 And the dust returns to the earth as it was. 
 
 Following the suggestion of William Lyon Phelps, 
 in the sentence in which he says, ‘‘One hardly knows 
 which to admire most, the language or the rhythm; 
 the swiftly following succession of vivid metaphors, 
 or the swelling adagio music,’’ one would do well 
 to study the rhythm of the clauses in 12:6, the 
 metaphors in 12:2-6, and the ‘‘swelling adagio’’ 
 effect in 12:1-7. 
 
 2. Explanation of Difficult Terms. 
 
 The attempt to translate this poem into prose des- 
 troys all that sense of ‘‘wistfulness, fear, tender- 
 ness, regret,’? and compassion, which in the original 
 is expressed with such transcendent beauty. In- 
 stead of saying ‘‘In the days when the keepers of 
 the house shall tremble,’’ let us say, ‘‘In the days 
 when a man’s arms have grown weak;’’ instead of 
 ‘Cand the strong men shall bow themselves,’’ let us 
 say, ‘‘ When the legs are bent;’’ instead of ‘‘and the 
 grinders shall cease because they are few,’’ ‘‘When 
 a man is losing his teeth and his ability to masti- 
 eate;’’ and instead of ‘‘and those that look out of 
 the windows be darkened,’’ ‘‘when a man grows 
 blind.’’ 
 
 This prosaic translation may state the facts, but 
 it takes away all the beauty from the chapter. It 
 also shows the wide gulf between poetry and prose. 
 
 In addition to the terms which have been ex- 
 plained above, note the interpretation of the fol- 
 lowing : 
 
174 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 “The clouds return after the rain.’? This prob- 
 ably means that in youth after an experience of 
 sorrow the clouds are dispelled easily; in old age 
 some shadow of sorrow always lingers. ‘*Daughters 
 of music.’’ This is thought to refer to the vocal 
 chords as used in laughter. 
 
 ‘Almond tree.’’? This signifies white hair. 
 
 “*Silver chord.’’ This means the spine. 
 
 ‘The golden bowl.’’ This is the skull. 
 
 3. The Message of Age to Youth. 
 
 Keclesiastes 11:9 should not be interpreted as a 
 cynical warning of judgment, but as a friendly 
 Statement of the inevitable result of devotion to 
 pleasure. We may paraphase the passage in the 
 following words: Let youth be happy; for God does 
 not delight in severe punishment, but will be fair 
 in his estimate of young life. The first half of the 
 verse is meant to be an approval of the natural joys 
 of youth. This is in keeping with many other pas- 
 sages in the book (9:7;11:10). Fowler translates 
 11:10 as follows: 
 
 Remove all worry from thy mind, 
 And from thy body banish pain. 
 
 Youth passes so quickly, and is in itself so full 
 of natural joys, that one should not spend it in 
 gloom, nor waste it in evil pleasures. 
 
 Keclesiastes 12:1 teaches that a person should not 
 wait until he is old before he thinks of religion, but 
 should make it a natural part of his life in his youth. 
 The last clause suggests that remembering God, and 
 having pleasure are not incompatible ideas. 
 
 Keclesiastes 12:2 is intended to produce in the 
 mind of the reader a feeling of tenderness in view 
 
AN IMPRESSIONIST PICTURE OF OLD AGE 175 
 
 of the physical infirmities of old age. Read in 
 this connection Ruskin’s Sesame and Lilies, especially 
 the chapter on ‘‘The Mystery of Life.’’ 
 
 Ecclesiastes 12:8, ‘‘all is vanity,’’ stands in con- 
 trast with the optimism of the great poets of the nine- 
 teenth century. Read Browning’s Rabbi Ben Ezra 
 with its joyous looking forward to old age. 
 
 Grow old along with me! 
 The best is yet to be, 
 The last of life, for which the first was made: 
 Our times are in his hand 
 Who saith, ‘‘A whole I planned, 
 Youth shows but half; trust God: 
 see all, nor be afraid! 
 
 My times be in thy hand! 
 
 Perfect the cup as planned! 
 
 Let age approve of youth, and death 
 complete the same! 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 
 1. Quote one couplet from Ecclesiastes’ ‘Picture of 
 ge. 
 
 2. What is the meaning of “the almond-tree shall blossom”? 
 
 3. What is the best explanation of Ecclesiastes 11:10? 
 
 4, What is the meaning of 12:1? 
 
 5. What effect is 12:2 intended to produce? 
 
 Oral Discusston 
 
 Does the expression ‘‘all is vanity’? represent a Christian view 
 of life? Why? 
 
 What is the difference between “‘all is vanity” and Browning’s 
 “Perfect the cup as planned”? 
 
 Does youth have an advantage over old age according to the 
 sentence ‘The clouds return after the rain”? What is the 
 advantage? 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 Quote Julius Cesar on fearing death. 
 Quote Sesame and Lilies on the mystery of life. 
 
Chapter XXXV 
 
 TWO SONGS OF TRUST 
 
 The eternal God is thy dwelling place. Psalm 90. 
 Underneath are the everlasting arms. Psalm 91. 
 
 1. Introduction. The Wide Appeal of the Psalms 
 and Their Distinctive Message. 
 
 Gladstone said, ‘‘In the Psalms is the whole musie 
 of the human heart, when touched by the hand of 
 its Maker, in all its tones that whisper or swell; for 
 every hope or fear, for every sigh and for every 
 pang, for every form of strength and languor of 
 disquietude and rest.’’ 
 
 The Psalms differ from other parts of the Old 
 Testament, not only because of their poetic form, 
 but also in the quality of their thought. Old Testa- 
 ment history narrates the events, while the Psalms 
 show us the very hearts of those who are taking 
 part in the events. Prophecy consists of the ser- 
 mons and interpretations of current events given 
 by men like Isaiah and Jeremiah, while the Psalms 
 reveal to us the inmost feeling of these great leaders. © 
 Philosophy, such as we have in Proverbs and Eccles- 
 lastes, is the Jewish interpretation of life, made up 
 of practical observations, while the Psalms express 
 the more intimate relations of the soul. 
 
 2. The Eternal God is Thy Dwelling Place. 
 
 Psalm 90 has influenced many poets of the world. 
 Shakespeare in Macbeth uses the very words of 
 
 the psalm in Act 5, Scene 5, lines 23-28. 
 176 
 
TWO SONGS OF TRUST 177 
 
 ‘Out, out, brief candle! 
 
 Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player 
 
 That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, 
 
 And then is heard no more; it is a tale 
 
 Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, 
 
 Signifying nothing.’’ 
 - Wordsworth’s Intimations of Immortality trans- 
 lates the thought of the first part of Psalm 90 into 
 the following beautiful words: 
 
 Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting. 
 
 Our soul that rises with us, our life’s star, 
 
 Hath had elsewhere its setting 
 
 And cometh from afar; 
 
 Not in entire forgetfulness, 
 
 And not in utter nakedness, 
 
 But trailing clouds of glory do we come 
 
 From God, who is our home. 
 
 Our noisy years seem moments in the being 
 Of the eternal silence. 
 
 There is a sort of pendulum movement in this 
 psalm, which emphasizes the two thoughts that the 
 author was seeking to contrast, the greatness of God 
 and the weakness of man. Verses 1 and 2 speak of 
 the eternity and power of God, while 4, 5, and 6 
 describe the brevity and frailty of man’s life. This 
 pendulum movement may be traced throughout the 
 psalm. 
 
 The three main divisions of the psalm are curiously 
 suggested by three couplets, called ‘‘leads.’’ Verse 1 
 is the ‘‘lead’’ for the following five verses, and the 
 thought suggested in the ‘‘lead’’ is developed in the 
 first stanza of the psalm. Verses 7 and 12 are the 
 ‘‘leads’’ for the second and third stanzas. Faithful 
 study of the development of the thought is the most 
 important task in connection with this great song of 
 trust. 
 
178 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 3. Underneath are the Everlasting Arms. 
 
 Read Psalm 91 antiphonally. The students 
 should be divided into two groups, group 1 reading 
 verses 1 and 2; group 2, verses 3-7; group 1 should 
 read 9a, and group 2, 9b-13. The voice of God is 
 heard in verses 14-16, which should be read by the 
 teacher. Observe that the prayer in Psalm 90:17 
 is answered in Psalm 91. 
 
 This psalm pictures, in many ways, the happiness — 
 of those who trust in God. For example, in verse 
 3, God is described as having wings with which he 
 protects his people, as the bird its young. In verse 
 0, the one who puts his confidence in God is regarded 
 as safe as Israel was when the destroying angel 
 wrought such havoc among the Egyptians (Exodus 
 12:23). Verse 11 has been explained to mean that 
 every man has a guardian angel who watches over 
 him. ‘‘Adder,’’ in verse 13, refers to the Egyptian 
 cobra. This was the reptile by which Cleopatra — 
 took her own life. ‘‘Hath known my name,’’ in 
 verse 14, teaches that one has to learn how to seek 
 God in prayer in order to be successful in his relig- 
 ious life. 
 
 4, The Teachings of These Two Psalms. 
 
 A few of the important lessons of these psalms 
 may be suggested : 
 
 God is our home. See 90:1. 
 
 The frailty and transitoriness of man. See 90:5,6. 
 
 ‘“We are such stuff 
 
 As dreams are made of, and our little life 
 Is rounded with a sleep.’’ 
 
 The possibility of perfect confidence in God, with 
 
TWO SONGS OF TRUST 179 
 
 a resulting peace of mind. See 91:1,2. Whittier 
 has expressed this trust, in his Hternal Goodness. 
 
 I know not where His islands lift 
 
 Their fronded palms in air; 
 
 I only know I cannot drift 
 Beyond His love and care. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 
 Read Psalms 90 and 91 and answer the following questions: 
 
 1. What pairs is made between the age of God and that of 
 man? 
 
 oe Berecvienee that man feels his sinfulness in the sight of 
 od? 
 
 3. What is the average age of man? 
 
 4, What allusion to the protection that a hen gives her chickens 
 is found in Psalm 91? How is that applied? 
 
 5. Quote the promise of an answer to prayer. 
 
 Oral Discussion 
 
 What reference to Psalm 90 is found in Macbeth? 
 
 Which is more important, prophecy or the Psalms? 
 
 Does each man have a guardian angei? See Psalm 91:11. 
 What was Gladstone’s idea of the scope of the Psalms? 
 
 Read aloud Psalm 91 responsively, as suggested under Section 3. 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 Read Whittier’s Eternal Goodness and note as many parallels as 
 possible with Psalm 91. 
 Give cases of great men who have been helped by the Psalms. 
 ate eee The Psalms in Human Life (Everyman’s Li- 
 rary). 
 
Chapter XXXVI 
 
 THE HYMNBOOK OF THE PILGRIMS 
 
 I will lift up ‘mine eyes. Psalm 121. 
 The escape of the captives. Psalm 124. 
 They that trust. Psalm 125. 
 
 1. The Origin of this Hymnbook. 
 
 In the midst of our Psalms stands a little group 
 of fifteen poems, once used by the temple choir in 
 the services of worship. Our whole Psalter was 
 made up of groups like this, and we shall under- 
 stand our Book of Psalms better, if we study the 
 group of Pilgrim Psalms in detail. 
 
 There are two views of the origin of this group. 
 One is that it consists of songs of the exiles return- 
 ing from Babylon. This view is supported by many 
 allusions to captivity and distress. See 120 :1; 123: 
 3,4; 124:7; 126:1,4. The other view regards these 
 fifteen songs as sung by Jews in connection with the 
 pilgrimages to Jerusalem to attend the annual 
 feasts. Caravans of villagers journeyed together 
 for safety, and after making camp at night, and eat- 
 ing the evening meal, they gathered to sing the 
 songs of their people. When they came in sight 
 of the hills on which Jerusalem was built, they 
 would sing: 
 
 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, 
 From whence cometh my help. 
 These two views may be united into one explana- 
 
 tion of these psalms. Some of the songs originated 
 180 
 
THE HYMNBOOK OF THE PILGRIMS 181 
 
 ‘among the exiles, escaping from Babylon, and were 
 afterwards used by the pilgrims to the annual 
 feasts. It would be very natural for the Jews 
 through the generations succeeding the deliverance 
 of the exiles to keep in memory those tragic events. 
 
 2. The Progress of Thought in these Pilgrim 
 Psalms. 
 
 Moulton in his Modern Reader’s Bible combines 
 these fifteen psalms into five groups of three, and 
 suggests that there is a progress of thought in each 
 group. For example, Psalm 120 is the exiles’ ery 
 in Babylon; 121 shows the escaped exile on his way 
 to the Holy City; 122 represents him arriving in 
 Jerusalem. Again, in the last group of three, 132 
 is a temple-dedication hymn; 133 describes the unity 
 of the people in their worship at the temple; and 134 
 is a recessional for the departure from the temple. 
 
 3. I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes. 
 
 The outstanding literary qualities of Psalm 121 
 are its unity and its simplicity. It has four qua- 
 trains, and each has two progressive couplets. A 
 curious stairlike structure binds the four quatrains 
 together. This structure is indicated by the repe- 
 tition of the word ‘‘help’’ in the first and second 
 couplets, and by the use of the word ‘‘keep’’ six 
 times over. 
 
 The teaching of the psalm is suggested by the 
 relation of quatrain 1, in which the poet speaks in 
 the first person, to the last three quatrains, in which 
 the poet talks of God, in the third person, as man’s 
 great helper. The caravan travellers were often in. 
 danger from robbers and exposure, and such a song 
 
182 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 as Psalm 121 would be a real comfort, as they 
 camped for the night. Observe how the author 
 stirs the reader’s emotions in his contrasted use of 
 negative and positive expressions in verses 8-5. 
 
 The association of God with the mountains in 
 verse 1 has often been repeated in the literature of 
 the world, and suggests the unchangeableness of 
 God. 
 
 4, The Escape of the Captives. 
 
 Psalm 124 is of more than usual interest because 
 of two features: The stairlike movement of the 
 rhythm, produced by means of the series of sentences, 
 repeating in different forms the same thought. 
 Count the number of clauses in the first part of this 
 psalm that repeat the sentiment ‘‘when men rose up 
 against us.’’ It is to be noted, also, that the succes- 
 sive clauses each repeat a part of the thought of 
 the preceding sentence, which gives us the feeling 
 that the writer goes back a few steps to get a good 
 running start. 
 
 The other feature is the large number of vivid 
 images. In these eight short verses there are not 
 less than eight such images. The picture of destruc- 
 tion, which is so prominent here, is very like that in 
 Lamentations 3:54 and Psalm 42:7. 
 
 5. They That Trust in Jehovah. 
 
 Psalm 125 was sung near the journey’s end, per- 
 haps at that moment when Jerusalem burst on. 
 the sight, as the pilgrims climbed the shoulder of 
 the Mount of Olives. The psalm is divided into. 
 two parts, both in thought and form. The first six | 
 
 | 
 | 
 
THE HYMNBOOK OF THE PILGRIMS 183 
 
 lines (verses 1 and 2) fall into two stanzas which 
 have an interesting structure, as follows: 
 
 They that trust in the Lord are as Mount Zion, 
 Which cannot be moved, 
 But abideth forever. 
 
 As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, 
 So the Lord is round about his people, 
 From this time forth and forever more. 
 
 This is an example of what might be called an 
 artistic irregularity. The Hebrew poets often en- 
 larged a couplet by adding one line, producing what 
 is called a ‘‘strain.’’ That signifies the addition of 
 a short line which completes the meaning of the 
 second line. The ‘‘strain’’ is more commonly 
 found in the ancient poetry of the Hebrews than in 
 the Psalms. It will be good practice to try to find 
 two or more of these ‘‘strains’’ in Exodus 15:6-11. 
 
 This poem is completed at the end of the second 
 verse, consisting of two couplets each cnlarged by 
 a third explanatory line. Read the two couplets 
 without lines 3 and 6, and note that the thought 
 is finished apart from the extra lines, but at the same 
 time these lines add much to the poetry. 
 
 There are two grand images in these six lines: 
 one of a man who becomes as strong and immovable 
 as a mountain by trusting in Jehovah; the other of 
 the encircling mountains representing the protec- 
 tion that God gives to the human soul. 
 
 Verses 3-5 have a different structure and thought. 
 Their import is that the Hebrews shall not suffer 
 from foreign domination lest they be led to do 
 wrong; and that God will bless the good and punish 
 the evil. The reason for the combination of these 
 two groups into one psalm is unknown, 
 
184 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 An example of the widespread use of the Pilgrim 
 Psalms is found in the cablegram announcing the 
 escape of the missionaries and soldiers from the Brit- 
 ish Legation in China at the time of the Boxer upris- 
 ing in 1900. The message was worded as follows: 
 
 Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of 
 the fowler; the snare is broken, and we are escaped. 
 Psalm 124:7. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY 
 
 Written Work 
 . Look through the Psalms and write a list of those that have 
 the title, ‘Songs of Ascent.” 
 . Two views of the origin of this group of Psalms. 
 
 - Quote verses to show that these Psalms had something to do 
 with the exile. 
 
 - Quote the words in Psalm 121 on which the theory of stairlike 
 structure is built up. 
 
 . On what occasion might Psalm 121 be a comfort to pilgrims 
 who are going up to the Passover? 
 
 . Why is God so often compared to the mountains? 
 
 fmol 
 
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 Oral Discussion 
 
 By what device is the stairlike effect produced in Psalm 124? 
 Why is it thought that Psalm 125 was sung by caravans just as 
 
 they were passing over the shoulder of the Mount of Olives? 
 Is there more than one great teaching in Psalm 125: 1,2? 
 
 Make an argument in support of the theory that two different 
 Psalms have been combined into one in Psalm 125. 
 
 Special Assignments 
 
 Compare the Psalms in this lesson with Psalm 90 and show that 
 these three Psalms are much more simple and human. 
 
 Find another group of Psalms entitled ‘“‘Psalms of the Sons of 
 Korah,” and note how many there are. 
 
 Find a third group with the title, “Asaph.” 
 
 Give an explanation of the fact that the Book of Psalms is made 
 up of groups like these. 
 
 What helpful thought of God is found throughout the Book of 
 Psalms? . 
 
Conclusion 
 
 HOW THIS LITERATURE BECAME A PART 
 OF OUR BIBLE 
 
 The Bible has been compared to a river whose be- 
 ginnings are hidden from one standing on the bank at 
 a point below the place where the last tributary gave 
 its contribution to the full stream. As it sweeps on 
 with all its elements united, bearing on its bosom 
 precious cargoes safely to their destination, no one 
 would think that it was made up of a thousand little 
 streams, which in their turn owe their never failing 
 supply to One Great Source. But back of the river 
 and all its minor tributaries and branches is the 
 great ocean which no one can explain apart from the 
 Creator of heaven and earth. 
 
 So to the casual reader in our day the Bible seems 
 a complete and indivisible whole, a miracle of grace 
 and power. As we read it more carefully, and trace 
 the different parts that have been combined to form 
 the perfect whole to their sources, we find that the 
 Bible like the river has had many contributory 
 streams. 
 
 Miriam and Deborah sang their songs of deliver- 
 ance and victory; Jotham repeated his fable, and 
 Elijah gave his orations; the bards of Israel told the 
 stories of the Creation and the Flood, and enlivened 
 many a fireside with the tale of the Wooing of Re- 
 bekah and the loyalty of Ruth. These and many 
 other rivulets of song and story found their way into 
 the early literature of the Hebrews. 
 
 185 
 
186 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 The legal literature of Israel began with Moses, 
 and, as the centuries went by, the legal tributary 
 added a great volume of material to the onrushing 
 streams of inspired thought. 
 
 By the year 850 B. C., in Jerusalem, in the reign 
 of Jehoshaphat, the Jehovist had written the first 
 great history of the Hebrew nation from the point of 
 view of Judah; by the year 750 the Elohist had writ- 
 ten his statement of the growth of the nation from 
 Abraham, to Jeroboam II, making prominent the 
 incidents and places belonging to Northern Israel, for 
 undoubtedly he was a resident of the north. 
 
 These two histories continued to be useful as long 
 as the two rival kingdoms of Judah and Northern 
 Israel survived. When, however, in 722 B. C., Sam- 
 aria was captured by the Assyrians, and Jerusalem 
 was left as the one capital to which all the Hebrews 
 eould look for leadership, the two histories were har- 
 monized and rewritten to form one consistent state- 
 ment of the development of Israel to the middle of the 
 seventh century. 
 
 In the year 621 a new contribution to the rapidly 
 increasing volume of literature appeared. It was a 
 revision of the law of Moses and a new and brilliant 
 description of the significance of Moses’ life in the 
 Book of Deuteronomy, probably written during the 
 seventh century by a group of prophetic and priestly 
 reformers (II Kings 22, 23). Meanwhile the great 
 prophets from Amos on had given their messages, and 
 the psalmists had begun to prepare their hymns and 
 prayers. 
 
 During the Babylonian exile a new sense of the 
 value of their literature dawned upon the Jews, and 
 the histories and prophetic rolls and patriotic songs 
 
CONCLUSION 187 
 
 were collected, copied, and preserved with care. The 
 
 loss of the temple in 586 had led the priests to write 
 out the directions for the sacrifices, lest in the exile 
 the ritual be forgotten. During the exile, also, the 
 priests, aided, perhaps, by Ezekiel began to rewrite 
 the whole history from the Creation. This work was 
 continued by successive generations of priests until a 
 fourth historical work, which scholars call the Priest 
 Code (P), had been completed. About the year 400 
 B. C. this was woven into one document with JE and 
 D to form our present Pentateuch. 
 
 The first clear description of any writings which 
 were regarded as sacred Scripture among the Hebrews 
 is found in Nehemiah 8. There we are told that in 
 the seventh month of the Jewish year, that is, in the 
 autumn, the people assembled for the reading of the 
 Law. ‘The reading of the first day was only a begin- 
 ning of the presentation of the book which was placed 
 before the people, translated from the Hebrew into the 
 Aramaic language, which had become their form of 
 speech in Babylon, and was explained to them so that 
 they could understand. (Lewis, How the Buble 
 Grew) 
 
 On the second day the reading was continued 
 (8:13). Some time during that day the readers came 
 to the portion of the Law in which was given an ac- 
 count of the feast of booths. The language is so 
 specific that we can infer from it with certainty where 
 in our Pentateuch they were reading. It was in what 
 we call the twenty-third chapter of the Book of Levi- 
 ticus. We may see this easily from the following 
 parallel arrangement of the two passages. 
 
188 BIBLICAL LITERATURE 
 
 Lev. 23:42 Neh. 8:14 
 Ye shall dwell in booths And they found written in 
 seven days; all that are the law, how that Jehovah 
 home-born in Israel shall had commanded by Moses, 
 dwell in booths. that the children of Israel 
 should dwell in booths in the 
 feast of the seventh month. 
 
 A similar comparison of passages in Exodus, Num- 
 bers, and Deuteronomy with Nehemiah show that it 
 was substantially our first five books of the Bible that 
 were accepted as sacred Scripture on that memorable 
 day in Jerusalem. 
 
 The second part of our Old Testament to be ac- 
 cepted as authoritative by the Jews consisted of a 
 collection of the prophetic books. When Ezra and 
 Nehemiah presented the Law to the people in Jerusa- 
 lem, there was no mention of the Prophets. Though 
 it was an occasion of the greatest religious import for 
 the Israelites, one in which a reference to the majes- 
 tic messages of the prophets would have been exceed- 
 ingly fitting, there is no mention of any sacred Serip- 
 ture besides the Law. 
 
 This does not mean that there were no prophetic 
 books in the time of Ezra, but, rather, that the Proph- 
 ets had not yet come to be recognized as sacred Scrip- 
 ture. It was not until about 200 B. C. that we find 
 references to the Prophets as the second sacred divis- 
 ion of the Old Testament. 
 
 The third part of our Old Testament called ‘‘The 
 Rest of the Books,’’ or the ‘‘Writings’’, included 
 Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Sol- 
 omon, Ruth, Lamentations, Esther, and Daniel. 
 There are several lines of evidence to show that 
 “‘The Rest of the Books’’ was not regarded as a sacred 
 division of the Old Testament until the Council of 
 
CONCLUSION 189. 
 
 Jamnia, about 90 A. D. By that time our whole 
 Old Testament was regarded as the authoritative 
 Bible of the Jews. 
 
 The first Christians were Jews, and naturally ac- 
 cepted the sacred book of their fathers as authorita- 
 tive. When in later years the Christian Church 
 gathered its basic documents into a sacred canon, 
 ealled the New Testament, it was regarded as a con- 
 tinuation of the Old Testament, and the two were 
 combined to form our present Bible. 
 
 This, in a few words, is the external history of the 
 world’s greatest book. One person binds the two 
 great divisions of that book, and indeed all the sixty- 
 six books, into a real unity. That person is Jesus 
 Christ, the central figure of human history. The New 
 Testament is a portrait of Jesus Christ, and the Old 
 Testament, as the early church understood it, was the 
 divine foreshadowing of His coming. The Old Tes- 
 tament had its source in a great yearning that God 
 would reveal himself to man (Job 31:35), and its his- 
 toric culmination in the coming of the Messiah, who 
 was God’s supreme revelation to man and whose glori- 
 ous character radiates love, light, and hope through 
 the pages of the New Testament. 
 
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APPENDIX 
 
 I 
 REFERENCE BOOKS 
 
 Fowler, A History of the Literature of the Ancient Hebrews from 
 the Earliest Times to 135 B.C. Macmillan, 1912. 
 Bewer, The Literature of the Old Testament in Its Historical De- 
 velopment. Columbia University Press, 1922. 
 Driver, An Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament. 
 Scribners, 1910. 
 Moulton, The Modern Reader’s Bible. Macmillan. 
 Wild, A Literary Guide to the Bible. Doran, 1922. 
 Muilenburg, Specimens of Biblical Literature. Crowell, 1923. 
 Gardiner, The Bible as English Literature. Scribners, 1906. 
 Hutchins, The Religious Experience of Israel. Association Press, 
 1919 
 Kent, Historical Bible, the four volumes on the Old Testament 
 (Heroes and Crises of Early Hebrew History, The Founders and 
 Rulers of United Israel, The Kings and Prophets of Israel and 
 Judah, The Makers and Teachers of Judaism). Scribners. 
 Commentaries: The Bible for Home and School, especially the 
 volumes on Genesis and Isaiah. Macmillan. 
 The New Century Bible. 
 Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible, in one volume. Scribners. 
 Translations: 
 The American Standard. 
 The Shorter Bible, by Charles Foster Kent and others, The Old 
 Testament. Scribners, 1921. 
 The Children’s Bible, by Henry A. Sherman and Charles F. 
 Kent. Scribners, 1922. 
 
 191 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 = 
 
 INDEX OF NAMES AND SUBJECTS 
 
 Abel, 25 
 
 Abiathar, 118 
 
 Abigail, 118 
 
 Abraham, 34-38 
 Absalom, 129 
 
 Adullam, Cave of, 117 
 Ahijah, 133 
 
 Ark, 109, 125, 126, 127 
 Antiochus Epiphanes, 153 
 Arnold, Matthew, 9, 46 
 
 Baalam, 85 
 
 Baalim, 137 
 
 Babylonia, 18, 29-31, 150, 154, 
 159 
 
 Balak, 86, 88 
 
 Banks, Edgar J., 31, 68 
 
 Bennett, New Century Bible, 47 
 
 Bewer, Julius A., 26, 41, 91, 
 160, 165 
 
 Biography, 56 
 
 Browning, Robert, 
 150, 175 
 
 Byron, 27 
 
 Cain, 25 
 
 Caine, Hall, 129 
 Chevy Chase, 74, 75 
 Christ, 110, 189 
 Coolidge, Calvin, 1 
 Creation, 16, 17 
 
 David and Goliath, 113, 114 
 David’s Elegy, 120, 122 
 Daniel, 153 
 
 Deborah, Song of, 16, 90 
 Decalogue, 81, 82 
 
 Dods, Marcus, 37, 38 
 
 20, 124, 
 
 Dramatization, 22, 42-45, 101, 
 102 
 Driver, S. R., 75 
 
 Kcclesiastes, 172, 173, 174 
 
 Eden, Garden of, 22 
 
 Egyptian background of Bible, 
 57 
 
 Kgyptian hymn, 170 
 
 Elijah, 136-138 
 
 Elisha, 139 
 
 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 9 
 Ephod, 118 
 
 Esau, 49, 50 
 
 Exiles in Babylonia, 159, 180 
 Ezra, 163 
 
 Flood, 28 
 
 Forms, list of literary, 8, 10, 11 
 
 Fowler, Henry T., 92, 95, 164 
 
 Friendship of David and Jona- 
 than, 114 
 
 Gardiner, J. H., 48 
 Genung,/ J, E1726 lge 
 Gideon, 94, 96 
 Gilgamesh Epic, 29 
 Goethe, 9 
 
 Hagar, 36 
 
 Hammurabi, Code of, 78, 79 
 Hannah’s Song, 105 
 
 Heine, 155 
 
 Herodotus, 66 
 
 Hezekiah, 146 
 
 Hodges, George, 87, 88 
 Homer’s Iliad, 131 
 Hutchins, W. J., 58, 58, 79 
 
 192 
 
Huxley, W. H., 10 
 Hyksos, 68 
 
 Isaac, 41 
 Isaiah, 143-146 
 
 Jashar, Book of, 121 
 Jacob, 47, 50 
 
 Jehu, 141 
 Jeroboam, 132 
 Jethro, 80 
 
 Job, 170 
 
 Jonah, 100, 163-165 
 Jonathan, 112, 114 
 Jones, William, 9 
 Joseph, 56 
 Josephus, 91 
 Jotham’s fable, 97, 98 
 Judah’s plea, 62 
 Juvenal, 149 
 
 Kent, Charles F., 92, 121 
 Kipling, Rudyard, 35 
 
 Laban, 48, 54 
 Lewis, Frank Conse 
 Lot, 36 
 
 Lowell, J. R., 64 
 
 Macaulay, 7 
 Magnificat, The, 105 
 Markham, Edwin, 169 
 Matheson, 61, 63 
 Messiah, ill 
 
 Meyer, 105 
 
 Michmash, 112 
 Milton, 7, 22, 24, 142 
 Mizpah Benediction, 53 
 Moses, 66-70 
 Moulton, R. G.,- 149, 181 
 
 Naaman, 140 
 Naboth’s Vineyard, 138 
 Nahor, 43 
 
 Nature, 167, 168 
 
 N ebuchadnezzar, 154 
 
 APPENDIX 193 
 
 Nile, 72 
 Noah, 31 
 Nob, 117 
 
 Origin of the Bible, 185-189 
 
 Paradise Lost, 25, 137 
 
 Parallelism, 72, 75 
 
 Phelps, W. ay 26, 60, 95, 103, 
 121, 129 
 
 Philistines, 112 ENS e125 
 
 Plagues, Egyptian, 72, 73 
 
 Psalms, 167, 176, 180 
 
 Rachel, 52, 53 
 Rebekah, 42 
 
 Red Sea, 73, 74. 
 Rogers, R. W., 29, 74 
 Ruskin, 175 
 
 Ruth, 99, 103 
 
 Samuel, 105, 106 
 
 Samuel, Books of, 108, 109 
 
 Sargon, 66, 67 
 
 Satan, 24 
 
 Saul, 108, TIOS LULL 
 
 Sennacherib, 146 
 
 Septuagint, 133 
 
 Servant, Song of the, 157 
 
 Shakespeare, 131, 177 
 
 Shiloh, 106 
 
 Smith, George Adam, 157, 160, 
 164. 
 
 Solomon, 1382 
 
 Temptation, 24, 25 
 Tent of Meeting, 106 
 
 Urim and Thummin, 118 
 
 Van Dyke, Henry, 71, 140 
 Vineyard, Parable of, 145, 146 
 
 Whittier, 179 
 Wild, Laura, 23, 120, 130, 166 
 Wordsworth, 168, 177 
 

 
BS1194 .P98 
 Literature of the Old Testament. 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary—Speer Library 
 
 MUL 
 
 1 1012 00056 1300 fs