THE DELIVERY OF THE LAW.

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at the foot of Sinai. But here they were threatened | Jewish leader proceeded to organize the body of the with destruction by thirst, as they had been before by people, under more appropriate regulations, with the hunger-a circumstance which called forth new mur- necessary sub-rulers and judges. When these arrangemurs and complaints. The recent experience of the ments were completed, they came to the plain which divine interposition seems to have been perfectly un- spreads out before the lofty peak of Sinai.* heeded, through the sort of madness produced by raging thirst. But the ingrates were speedily furnished with the liquid element. Moses struck the rock, and water gushed out. Massah and Meribah were the names given to the place, from the discontents of the people. Here, also, occurred the first collision they had with an enemy in the desert. The camp was suddenly surrounded by one of the wild, marauding clans, the Amalekites; but, after a long and strenuous fight, they were repulsed by Joshua, at the head of a chosen band of warriors.

When Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, heard of these great events, he joined the camp of the Israelites, in company with Zipporah, the wife, and Gershom and Eliezer, the sons, of Moses. He was received with proper respect, and, by his discreet advice, the

"Here, after the most solemn preparations, and under the most terrific circumstances, the great lawgiver of the Jews delivered to his people that singular constitution and code which presupposed their possession of a rich and fertile territory, in which, as yet, they had not occupied an acre, but had hitherto been wandering in an opposite direction, and not even approached its borders. The laws of a settled and civilized community were enacted among a wandering and homeless horde, who were traversing the wilderness, and more likely, under their existing circumstances, to sink below the pastoral life of their forefathers, than to advance to the rank of an industrious, agricultural community. Yet at this time the law must have been enacted." The circumstances of the giving of the law, with

the presence of the Deity, and all the astounding phenomena, could be narrated with due effect only in the simple and sublime language of the Bible, to which the reader is referred. The continuance of Moses on the mountain, day after day, seems at length to have awakened a suspicion among the people that he had either abandoned them, or else had himself perished. What would become of them without their leader? Even Aaron is in the same ignorance as to the designs and fate of his brother. Their fears caused them to sink back to the superstitions of the country they had left. They insisted, and Aaron consented, that an image of gold should be cast, similar to the symbolic representations of the principal deity of the Egyptians, under the form of an ox or calf. To this god, in their madness, they paid divine honors, as if mingling in an

Egyptian festival. The result, however, of such strange and impious conduct, and of the forgetfulness of the God who had brought them out of slavery, was such as might have been expected. Three thousand

Dr. Edward Robinson, in his "Biblical Researches," supvast circular assemblage of summits, cleft and surrounded by poses that, in the Scriptures, the name Horeb is applied to a a labyrinth of passes, and that Sinai is the name of the particular summit from which the law was given — exactly contrary to the present application of these names by most comdetermined to their satisfaction, by the existence of the great plain Er-Rahah, there being no other area in all the region capable of holding such a multitude as the assembled tribes impend over the plain, is called, by the Arabs, Es-Sufssûfeh. of Israel. The almost inaccessible peak, which appeared to It is described as a place of awful grandeur, and befitting the solemnities once enacted there.

mentators. That summit itself he and his fellow-travellers

156

JOURNEY OF THE ISRAELITES.

of the offenders perished by the sword of the tribe of Levi, without regard to kindred or relationship. The national crime having been thus punished, the intercourse between the Deity and Moses was renewed. From this period, the preparations for the religious ceremonial of the Jews were commenced, particularly for the sacred tabernacle or pavilion, a temple which was to occupy the central place of honor; for no religious impressions, in such an age, and upon such a people, would be lasting, which were not addressed to the

senses.

"Thus the great Jehovah was formally and deliberately recognized by the people of Israel, as their God the sole object of their adoration. By the law to which they gave their free and unconditional assent, he became their king, the head of their civil constitution, and the feudal lord of all their territory, of whom they were to hold their lands, on certain strict but equitable terms of vassalage. The tenure by which they held all their present and future blessings, - freedom from slavery, the inheritance of the land flowing with milk and honey, the promise of unexampled fertility, was the faithful discharge of their trust, the preservation of the great religious doctrine, the worship of the one great Creator. Hence any advantage to be derived from foreign commerce, or a large intercourse with the neighboring tribes, - wealth, or the acquisition of useful arts, could not, for an instant, come into competition with the great danger of relapsing into polytheism. This was the great national peril, as well as the great national crime." It was, in fact, treason and rebellion.

At length, the Israelites broke up their encampment

in the vicinity of Sinai. The particular stations cannot all be determined, though the probable general course of travel can be indicated. The physical character of a supposed station, expressly described or implied in the sacred narrative, its distance from some known point, the similarity of the Arabic name to the ancient Hebrew, or a concurrence of all these particulars, goes to determine a few localities. These points being fixed, the progress of the Israelites from one to another is sometimes limited to certain roads by the physical character of the country - the mountains and passes. Thus Sinai and Kadesh Barnea are two points whose relative position is known; and from the former there are two great routes leading in the direction of the latter place. The western route leads over the elevated desert, and the eastern through the wady el Arabah.

It is altogether probable that the wanderers took the eastern route, since the sacred writer seems to imply that their course led along Mount Seir, and since, if they had taken the western route, they would have arrived on the borders of Palestine, at Beersheba, instead of Kadesh Barnea, which lay on the borders of Edom. A year and a month had elapsed since their departure from Egypt. They again commenced their march, in improved order and under military discipline. The supernatural cloud, which had been presented to their view in passing over the Red Sea, as their guide and encouragement, still led the way.

"By day, along the astonished lands,
The cloudy pillar glided slow;
By night, Arabia's crimson sands
Returned the fiery column's glow."

With few incidents, they arrived, at length, at Ka- | inhabitants of Canaan, so it was resolved that they desh Barnea; but now a great crisis was at hand. The should never enter that land. The decision was inreport of the spies, sent forward into the land which stantaneously formed, the plan of immediate conquest they were expected to subdue, completely paralyzed at once abandoned, and, by the command of God, the the people with fear. They felt incompetent to grap- people are required to retreat directly from the borders ple with foes of a gigantic stature, and to attack of the promised land. They are, moreover, given to strongly fortified cities. Their long slavery had de- understand that all of them, with the exception of based their minds to cowardice, and their confidence Joshua and Caleb, from twenty years old and upwards, in the divine protection gave way, at once, before their would perish in these barren regions, after wandering sense of physical inferiority. The general wish ex- in them for a definite period of forty years. Even pressed was to return to the "house of bondage." Moses was required to acquiesce in this divine appointment, in regard to his personal anticipations of the rest of Canaan. He was only to see the glorious land at a distance, from the heights of Pisgah. A dangerous and widely organized rebellion soon followed this man

All that the lion-hearted Joshua and Caleb could do was done to inspire a better feeling in the minds of the multitude, but in vain. The die was cast. As they feared to attack, even under the divine auspices, the

ands upon him: and the children of Israel hear- hand, and in all the great terror which Moses s

- unto him, and did as the Lord commanded in the sight of all Israel."

The Avites, in the south-west, were partly ex nated and partly driven south by the Philistines ony from Crete.

primitive Nations and Tribes in and ound Canaan - Ethnographical Position Canaan - Primitive gigantic Races enites Kenizzites Canaanites proper Hittites Jebusites Amorites Gir- whence they were exterminated by the Edomit

Moab

The Horites, “Cave-dwellers," or Trogl seem to have been invaded by, and to have n with, the Canaanites. They inhabited Mount Se The Rephaim were a very ancient people c Canaan, tall of stature, divided into several fa Philis- and having many cities, which were, in the destroyed, founded anew, or occupied by th Canaanites. Connected with them were the or "Terribles," so called by the Moabites, wealthy people of high stature, whose territo afterwards called the Land of Moab; the Z mims, also, as the Ammonites called them, a ri ple, and of extraordinary stature. Their territo called the Land of the Rephaim, and, after thei pation, the Land of the Ammonites. A pla valley contiguous to Jerusalem, on the south-we the name of these "giants." The Rephaim kingdom of Bashan, called the Land of the R probably the only remnants of this people, were minated by Moses.

is proper, in order to a clear understanding of istory of the Jews, to give a sketch of the naribes in and around Canaan. By reference to pon a previous page, it will be seen that Syria, mich Canaan is a part, is about equidistant from nowy wastes of the arctic and the burning heats e torrid zone; from the United States, the focus cidental civilization, on the west, and China, the of Oriental civilization, on the east. It is as it an island, having its sea of sand on the east, and ter on the west, of mountains on the north, and cks on the south. Or it may be deemed the us connecting Europe, Asia, and Africa. Whether aching from the Mediterranean, or from the n desert, the traveller first beholds a long line of - clouds upon the horizon; these gradually assume re determinate shape, till Lebanon is distinctly - the most conspicuous mass of the ridge that hes across the horizon like a wall. The beauLebanon, once forested with cedars, and still f delicious valleys, is described in Arab poetry ving winter crowning its head, spring mantling oulders, autumn nestling in its bosom, while er lies smiling at its feet.

the south part of Syria, called Canaan, the st inhabitants known seem to have been a large, ful, and vigorous race, whose stature quite disshed them from the Canaanites and Hebrews.

The Anakim, that is, "Giants," were a m race very formidable to the Israelites. Like t phaim, they were divided into several families. Nephilim, about Hebron, of whom were, pr Arba, Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai; the Ana the mountains, not only of Hebron, but of Debir and most of the mountains of Judah and Isra in the north and south of Canaan: these were stroyed by Joshua. The Anakims of Gaza, an dod, and Gath, were alone left. Of the last was Goliath.

The Kenites dwelt in the land in Abraham and seem to have been driven southward Canaanites, and to have settled among the Mic as Hobab is said to have been their father.