The History of Antiquity Volume I Part 27

FOOTNOTES:

[630] Exod. xv. 1-11; cf. Joshua xxiv. 7.

[631] Noldeke, "Untersuchungen," s. 40.

[632] Exod. i. 1-7, 13, 14; ii. 23, 24; vi. 2-7, 9-27; vii. 8-13, 19-22; viii. 1-4, 12-15; ix. 8-11; xii. 1-23, 37, 40-51; xiii. 20; xiv. 8, 9, 15-17, 21-23, 29.

[633] Exod. xiii. 2; xxii. 29, 30; x.x.xiv. 19, 20. "The firstborn of thy sons thou shalt give to me. Likewise shalt thou do with thine oxen, and thy sheep. All that openeth the matrix is mine, all thy cattle that is male. All the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem." Cf. Exod. x.x.x.

11-16.

[634] Ewald, "Alterthumer des Volkes Israel," s. 358 ff.

[635] De Wette-Schrader. "Einleitung," s. 282, 284, 290.

[636] Lepsius, "Briefe," s. 46, 47.

[637] Ebers. "Durch Gosen." s. 101 ff.

[638] Noldeke. "Untersuchungen," s. 47. According to De Wette-Schrader, from the second text ("Einleitung," 283), verses 11-17 may be an addition; verses 19-21 obviously come from the revision.

[639] Exod. ii. 19.

[640] Budinger ("Akad. d. Wissenschaft zu Wien," Sitzung vom, 15 October, 1873) regards Moses and Aaron as of Egyptian origin, as Egyptian priests, and finds the tribe of Levi in the leprous Egyptians who went out with the Hebrews. Lauth ("Moses der Hebraeer," and "Zeitsch. d. d. M. G." 1871, s. 135 ff) inclines to recognise Moses in the mohar, sotem (scribe) and messu of the papyrus Anastasi I., who would thus have been one of the Egyptian scholars, and employed by Ramses II. in matters of state and war. This view is opposed by Pleyte ("Zeitschr. f. aeg. Sprache," 1869, s. 30, 100 ff.); he reads the name Ptah-messu. Lauth, at the same time, refuses to derive the name Osarsiph from Osiris; he considers it to be Semitic, and explains it as a-sar-suph, _i.e._ "rush-basket."

[641] Lepsius, "Konigsbuch der aegypten," s. 117-150. Maspero objects that Egypt in the time of Menephta was still too powerful for the Israelites to carry out their exodus. Such a plan was possible for the first time in the last years of Sethos II. (above, p. 150), or shortly after his death ("Hist. Ancienne," p. 259). These considerations are of too general a nature to allow any definite conclusions to be founded upon them; and if Josephus or his copyist changed the Menephtes of Manetho into the much better known Amenophis, or mistook one for the other, a similar interchange cannot so easily be a.s.sumed for the names Sethos and Menephtes.

[642] Gen. x.x.xvi. 31-39; Noldeke, "Untersuchungen," s. 87.

[643] Diod. 40, frag. 3.

[644] Diod. 34, frag. 1.

[645] Strabo, p. 760, 761.

[646] Fragm. 30, ed. Muller.

[647] Justin. "Hist." 36, 2.

[648] Joseph. "c. Apion." 1, 34.

[649] "Hist." 5, 2-5.

CHAPTER X.

THE HEBREWS IN THE DESERT.

The fortunes and achievements of the Israelites after leaving Egypt and escaping the pursuit of the Egyptians, are narrated in the second, third, and fourth books of the Pentateuch in the following manner. From the reed-sea the Israelites marched into the wilderness of Shur, and for three days found no water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water there, because it was bitter. Then Jehovah showed Moses a piece of wood, and he threw it into the water, so that the water became sweet. From Marah they came to Elim, where were twelve wells and seventy palm-trees, and they encamped there by the water. From Elim they came into the wilderness of Sin, and the people murmured against Moses, because there was no food to be found; but at evening Jehovah caused swarms of quails to rise which covered the camp, and in the morning manna had fallen, which lay like h.o.a.r frost upon the ground, and the people were allowed to gather manna for six days, but on the seventh they were not allowed to gather it. And Israel set forth from the wilderness of Sin and encamped at Rephidim. There there was no water to drink, and the people were angry with Moses; but Jehovah said to Moses: Take thy staff with which thou didst smite the Nile; thou shalt smite the rock, and the water shall flow forth. And Moses did so before all Israel, and they called the name of the place Ma.s.sah and Meribah. And Amalek came and strove with Israel in Rephidim, and was smitten down with the edge of the sword. And Jethro, the priest of Midian, the father-in-law of Moses, came and advised Moses to choose valiant men for his helpers, as overseers over the people and judges for the matters of smaller moment. And Moses did so.

In the third month after the exodus from Egypt, the Israelites set forth from Rephidim, and came into the desert of Sinai, and encamped over against the mountain. The people were commanded to purify themselves and wash their garments, and Moses forbad any one to approach the mountain.

On the third day, when it was morning, there was thunder and lightning, and a thick cloud stood upon the mountain, and there was a mighty sound of trumpets. And all the people heard the thunder and saw the flames and the smoking mountain, and the mountain quaked, and all trembled. But Moses led them to meet Jehovah at the foot of the mountain. And Jehovah came down to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. For forty days and forty nights Moses was on the mountain, and Jehovah revealed to him his laws, and the finger of G.o.d wrote them on two stone tables. And Jehovah spoke to Moses out of the darkness, and told him all the ordinances which he should lay upon the people. But the cloud covered the mountain, and the glory of Jehovah was a consuming fire on the top of the mountain.

When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people said to Aaron: We know not what has happened to the man who led us out of Egypt; make us a G.o.d to go before us. And Aaron said to them: Take off the golden rings which are in the ears of your wives, your daughters, and your sons. They brought him the rings, and he made of them a golden calf, and built an altar before the calf. Then they said: That is the G.o.d, who led us out of Egypt; and Aaron caused a festival to be proclaimed to Jehovah, and they brought a thank-offering to the calf, and the people ate and drank and stood up to dance. But when Moses came down from the mountain with the stone tablets in his hand, and heard the singing and shouting, and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger was kindled. He cast the tables out of his hand, and broke them at the foot of the mountain, and took the calf, and burned it with fire, and ground it to dust, and strewed it on the water, and made the children of Israel drink it. And Moses came into the entrance of the camp and cried: Come to me, all who belong to Jehovah. Then the descendants of Levi gathered round him. Take everyone his sword at his side, he said to them; go from one gate of the camp to the other, and slay every man his brother, his friend, and his neighbour. And there fell on that day about 3,000 men of the people.

On the next morning Moses said: Ye have sinned a great sin; I will go up to Jehovah, perhaps I can appease him for your sin. And Jehovah said to Moses: Hew two stone tables like the others, and be ready in the morning, and appear before me on the top of the mountain. And Moses was there with Jehovah forty days and forty nights, and ate no bread, and drank no water, and he wrote on the tables the ten commandments. Then he came down with the two tables of the law in his hand, and told the people the commandments which Jehovah had given him, and the laws; and the people answered: All that Jehovah has commanded we will do. Then Moses built an altar and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes. And the young men slew burnt-offerings and thank-offerings, and the half of the blood Moses sprinkled on the altar, and with the other half he sprinkled the people, and said: This is the blood of the covenant which Jehovah makes with you over all laws.

Then Moses set up the tent of the a.s.sembly for a sanctuary of Jehovah, that He might dwell in their midst, as Jehovah had commanded, with planks of acacia wood on silver feet, and fastened them with silver bars; and on them he placed a cover of woven cloth of byssus, of a purple colour, and over this a second roof of red sheep-skins and seal-skins, and divided the tent by a curtain of blue and red purple, and carmine, and byssus, with cherubs woven upon it. And in the tent behind the second curtain he placed the ark of the law, as Jehovah had commanded, of acacia wood, overlaid with pure gold, and placed the law in the ark. Then Moses made a table of acacia wood, overlaid with pure gold, and placed bowls of pure gold upon it for the drink-offerings, and laid the sacrificial bread upon the table. And he made a candlestick of pure gold, with seven lamps, three on the one side and three on the other side of the candlestick. Then he made the altar of incense of acacia wood, overlaid with gold; and the altar of burnt sacrifice of acacia wood, as Jehovah commanded, and overlaid it with copper; and made the curtains for the court and the poles for the curtains of copper. The Israelites brought what was necessary for the erection and adornment of the shrine, and gave their nose-rings, ear-rings, seals, and ear-drops.

And Moses made Aaron and his sons priests, and anointed the altars and all utensils with holy ointment, and sanctified the fire on the altar, and offered burnt-offerings. But two sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, brought strange fire before Jehovah; then fire went forth from Jehovah and consumed them, and they died before Him. And the glory of Jehovah filled His habitation, and the cloud covered the tent of a.s.sembly; and when the cloud rose, the children of Israel set forth, and by night there was fire in the cloud.

In the second year after the exodus from Egypt, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, the cloud rose from the dwelling of the law, and the children of Israel set forth on their march out of the desert of Sinai, from the mountain of Jehovah, and they went three days'

journey, and the cloud halted in the wilderness of Paran. And Jehovah bade Moses send men to search out the land of Canaan--one for each tribe from among the leaders. And from Ephraim Moses sent Joshua the son of Nun; and from the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh. Then the twelve princes set forth at the time of the first grapes, and came to Hebron and to the valley of Eshcol, and there cut a bunch of grapes and a vine, and carried them on a pole between two; and they also took of the pomegranates and the figs. After forty days they returned, and said to the people: The land into which you sent us flows with milk and honey, and these are its fruits. But the people is mighty, and their cities are large and fortified, and Amalek dwells in the land to the south, and the Hitt.i.tes, and Jebusites, and Amorites dwell on the mountains, and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and on the side of Jordan. And Caleb said: We will go up and overpower them; but the others said: We cannot go up against that people, for they are mightier than we; and the sons of Israel cried: Why should we fall by the sword, and our wives and children fall into the hand of the enemy; is it not better to return to Egypt? Then Jehovah said to Moses: All those who have murmured against me shall not enter into the land wherein I have lifted up my hand to cause you to dwell. Your bodies shall lie in the desert, save Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun; and your children shall pasture their flocks in the desert forty years: forty years shall my face be turned from you. And Moses told these words to the children of Israel. But the Israelites ventured to rise up and went to the heights of the mountains on the way towards Atharim. But the Amalekites and Canaanites who dwelt on the mountains came down and smote them, and scattered them as far as Hormah.

And Korah of the tribe of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram of the tribe of Reuben, and two hundred and fifty of the foremost men, heads of families and officers of the community, a.s.sembled themselves against Moses and Aaron, and said: Why do ye lift yourselves up against the people? And to Moses they said: Is it not enough that thou hast led us out of Egypt, to slay us in the desert? Wilt thou also make thyself a ruler over us? But the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up. On the next morning the people murmured in the a.s.sembly against Moses and Aaron, and said: Ye have slain them. But Jehovah said to Moses: Go out from this company; I will destroy them suddenly. Then the plague began. At Moses' command Aaron took the censer of incense and offered incense to purify the children of Israel; and he stood between the living and the dead, and the plague was stayed. But there died fourteen thousand and seven hundred.

The children of Israel came into the wilderness of Sin, and Moses sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying: Let us pa.s.s through thy land; we will go along the highway, and turn neither to the right hand nor to the left. But Edom went to meet them with mighty hosts and a powerful hand, and Israel retired before him, and went from Kadesh to Mount Hor, and from Mount Hor to the reed-sea. Then the people became impatient on the way, and murmured against Moses, and Jehovah sent the serpents, the saraphs, among the people, and many died. Then the Israelites saw that they had sinned, and Moses prayed for the people and made a serpent of copper, and set it up on a pole, and all who were bitten by the serpents and looked upon the image of copper were saved. From the reed-sea the Israelites went again to the north, towards Oboth and Beer, to the well which the princes dug. Then Israel sang: "Rise up, O fountain, meet him with songs; O well which the princes dug, which the n.o.bles of the people hollowed out with their sceptre and their staves." And from Beer they went to Bamoth, and from Bamoth to Pisgah, which rises over the desert.

And Sihon, king of the Amorites, who dwelt in his city at Heshbon, gathered all his people and went to meet Israel in the desert, and came towards Jahaz, and strove with Israel. Then Israel smote him with the edge of the sword, laid waste the land, and took the cities. And Israel sang: "Fire went forth from Heshbon, and flames from the city of Sihon; we shot at them, we laid waste the land to Nophah, we burnt it with fire to Medeba." Then the Israelites turned and went up against Og, the king of the Amorites of Bashan, who was at Ashtaroth Karnaim, and smote him at Edrei, and his sons and all his people, and his cities were taken, and not a fugitive escaped. From Bashan Israel went southwards, and encamped in the plains of Moab at s.h.i.+ttim; and they began to commit wh.o.r.edom with the daughters of Moab, and served Baal Peor. And Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, pierced with his spear Zimri, a captain of the tribe of Simeon, as he lay with a Midianitish woman, and slew both with one thrust through the belly. And Jehovah said to Moses: Go up to Mount Abarim and see the land which I have given to the children of Israel, and when thou hast seen it, thou shalt be gathered to thy people. Take Joshua, the son of Nun, and lay thy hand on him, and place him before Eleazar the priest (the son of Aaron), and before all the people, so that all may obey him; and Eleazar shall inquire of Jehovah for him, and as he commands he shall go out and in. And Moses did as Jehovah commanded. And the sons of Reuben and Gad said to Moses: The land which Jehovah has smitten before Israel is a land for flocks, and thy servants have flocks; and to them, and half of the tribe of Mana.s.seh, Moses gave the land of Gilead. And Moses went up from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, over against Jericho, and Jehovah caused him to see the whole land from Gilead to Dan, and from Jericho to Zoar. And there Moses died, a hundred and twenty years old. But his eyes were not dim, nor had his strength forsaken him. The Israelites mourned for Moses thirty days in the plains of Moab, and henceforth there was no prophet in Israel like Moses; and to this day no man knows the grave of Moses.

In those portions which deal with the abode and fortunes of the Hebrews in the desert, the two texts were less closely combined, and the contradictions are more numerous, than in the other parts. The two narratives are interpolated each into the other, and the additions of the reviser are more prominent than elsewhere. An ancient record, embodied in the first text, gives a list of the places where the Israelites pitched their tents between Egypt and the Jordan. The statements do not agree with the narrative in its present condition. In the first text the Midianites manifestly dwell to the east of the Jordan. It represents the Israelites as taking vengeance upon them, because they had seduced Israel to a heathenish ritual; first by the act of Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, whose seed in consequence received "the everlasting covenant of the priesthood," and then by the war which cost the Midianites a vast booty of sheep, oxen, a.s.ses, and thousands of prisoners.[650] In the Ephraimitic text the Midianites dwell on Sinai; hither Moses fled to the Midianites from Egypt; he married the daughter of the priest of the Midianites, and stands in most friendly relations with them. This text represents the seduction of the Israelites as the work not of the Midianites, but of the Moabites; and subsequently narrates the victories over the Moabites of Heshbon and Bashan. How the first text described the conquest of the land of Gilead we cannot any longer ascertain; that it dealt with the subject is beyond question.[651]

The setting up of the golden calf at Sinai is inconceivable in the connection in which the narrative places it. While Jehovah's glory is visible on Sinai, and proclaims itself in thunder and lightning, would the people, and Aaron at their head, have required an image of G.o.d, and offered prayer to it? When after the death of Solomon the ten tribes founded their independent kingdom Jehovah was wors.h.i.+pped among them in the form of a bull, in contrast to the wors.h.i.+p of the kingdom of Judah.

To stigmatise this wors.h.i.+p, wherein priests of the family which claimed to be derived from Aaron may have taken part from the first, as objectionable, the prophetic revision has interpolated the adoration of the golden calf and the punishment of such idolatry; and from this the second ascent of Sinai by Moses came into the narrative. The account of the saraphs and the setting up of the brazen serpent belongs to the Ephraimitic text.[652] At Jerusalem there was a serpent of bra.s.s, which was thought to have come down from Moses.[653]

It was the fixed belief of the Hebrews that it was only by the immediate help of Jehovah that their forefathers had been able to escape the power of Egypt. And this was not the only thing done for their fathers; they had afterwards gained abodes to the east and west of the Jordan, and from the wilderness they had come into a land flowing with milk and honey. Here, also, the help of Jehovah had been shown forth mightily for his people, against the old and powerful cities, and the mountain fortresses of Canaan. Obviously Jehovah had delivered his people out of Egypt, in order to give them this beautiful and rich land for a dwelling. But why had he not at once led them thither? Why did the Israelites remain so long in the miserable wilderness? The Israelites--so the first text explains this delay--received the account of the spies with fear. This cowardly generation, therefore, must die out. We saw above that the Hebrews reckoned the length of a generation at forty years, and so the first text puts the sojourn in the desert at forty years. We shall see below that this period is too short by some decads of years. Moses and Aaron also did not reach Canaan, because, as the first text says, "they sinned against Jehovah at the water of strife, at Kadesh, in the wilderness of Sin," because "they rebelled against his command at the water," an obstinacy which cannot be any longer found in the revised narrative of this occurrence.[654] If Joshua and Caleb are exempted from this decree, if they alone reach Canaan, it was certain that Joshua had undertaken and carried out the attack upon Canaan, that Caleb conquered Hebron and subjected the surrounding district; his descendants were living there even in David's time in princely wealth.

In the desert also Jehovah had taken care of his people; he had not allowed them to perish there; he had sent quails and given them manna.

Even now long lines of quails pa.s.s over the Syrian steppes and the wilderness of Sinai, and in the neighbourhood of Firan, manna, i.e. the juice running from the branches and leaves of the tamarisk, is still gathered.[655] Nor had Jehovah allowed water to fail in the midst of the desert. Moses changed a bitter spring into sweet water. The story rests, no doubt, on the name of the spring. Marah means bitter. At another spring of the name of Meribah, _i.e._ strife (here Jehovah bade the rocks give water), the rebellion of Moses and Aaron is said to have taken place. The well of Beer, which the princes dug, cannot be any other than the well of Beer Elim, _i.e._ the well of the strong,[656]

and the song which tradition connects with this place (p. 473) is certainly very old, if not contemporary.

The law made known to Moses on Sinai forms the main portion of the second, third, and fourth books of the Pentateuch. It not only contains the fundamental moral rules, the ordinances of the law of family and blood-feud, and the rubrics for the national wors.h.i.+p; it is rather a law for the priesthood, given in systematic detail, which fixes their position, rights, and honours, the dress of their office, and the fees for the sacrifice--a wide collection of regulations for the ritual of sacrifice, descending into the smallest minutiae, the place of wors.h.i.+p, the instruments of sacrifice, the celebration of festivals, and the arrangement of life in the future dwellings of the tribes. Could tribes wandering in the desert have made rules for the celebration of the festivals of sowing, of harvest, and of the vintage? Could they have settled what part of the produce of the field should be given to the priests, and how they should deal with the fallow time of the seventh year of rest, and the reversion of the alienated land in the year of Jubilee? Could dwellers in tents make regulations about receiving the stranger in their gates, about cities of refuge and cities of the Levites? And even if this had really taken place, how are we to explain the fact that whole groups of arrangements for wors.h.i.+p and life which these laws prescribe were demonstrably not in existence among the Hebrews in the centuries following their wandering? Laws are never created except in connection with definite circ.u.mstances; no lawgiver can antic.i.p.ate the relations which the future will bring into existence, and answer, _a priori_, the questions which will then arise.

It is therefore beyond doubt that views and tendencies of later development and the results of a long course of growth have been transferred to early times, the times of the exodus from Egypt. Those early days had been an era of original piety, and the time of the exodus had been a period in which the G.o.d of the fathers had guided and led them with a mighty hand, in which he had announced to them his will directly and without deception. The condition of religious service and life, therefore, which was held to be the true and proper kind must have been prescribed in those early days and have existed then; the ideal after which men were to strive, and in the pursuit of which every hindrance was to be removed, must have already existed in those days of direct divine guidance. Thus ordinances and usages which arose successively after the settlement in Canaan, were amalgamated with older customs and rules, and united into one system, which seemed to the priests the necessary system, appointed by G.o.d and pleasing to him. The position which the first text ascribes to Aaron, and which the laws attached to that text, give to the priests and Levites the prominence of a centralised, rich, and even splendid ritual, and of a single place for the wors.h.i.+p of Jehovah, display the tendency which was active in the priesthood, to concentrate the wors.h.i.+p of Jehovah on a single spot, and to obtain power in the state for the chief priests. The gorgeous tabernacle erected near Mount Sinai with the portable altars for burnt sacrifice and incense, the implements of sacrifice and the candlestick of seven branches, can only have been taken from the tabernacle erected by David, and afterwards from the temple of Solomon and its glory, the sacred pattern of which ought to be recognised in the movable sanctuary already erected by Moses on Mount Sinai. At the same time the rich adornment of this pattern by the voluntary offerings of the Israelites proved how ready the nation was at that time to honour their G.o.d and dedicate their property to him. For these descriptions there was a historical foundation in the fact that the Israelites had carried their national sanctuary, the sacred ark, the Ark of the Covenant, into the desert, that it had been placed under a movable tent, and before the tent the heads of the tribes and the nation had gathered for sacrifice and counsel. In the position of Aaron and his family we have a pattern which brings clearly into light the attributes and advantages, the rights and honours, which belonged to the chief priests and priests in contrast to the Levites or servants of the temple. The fearful punishments which awaited offences against ritual and neglect of the priestly rules were strongly marked. Even two sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, die because they approach Jehovah with unconsecrated fire; and when the Levite Korah, and Dathan and Abiram of the tribe of Reuben, rebel against Moses and Aaron, they were swallowed up by the earth, and Jehovah smites the people who follow them.[657] It is the ideal picture of the priesthood, and arrangement of the Church, which those laws exhibit, and transfer to that mighty time when Jehovah spoke to the Israelites through Moses.

The intention of the Israelites in the exodus from Egypt could not at first go further than the attempt to escape from the dominion of Egypt, and resume the old free life in the desert. That the line of march at first attempted to pa.s.s along the western sh.o.r.e of the reed-sea, and reach the south of the peninsula of Sinai, in order to get as far as possible from Egypt, place the whole length of the protecting arm of the sea between the emigrants and Egypt, and reach the pasture lands of the apparently friendly Midianites, corresponds to the situation. Nor can it in any way surprise us that the Amalekites, as the Ephraimitic text states, opposed the Hebrews, _i.e._ contested the possession of the pasture-lands and oases of the wildernesses of Shur and Paran, with the new-comers. The Israelites obtained the victory. So they arrived at Sinai, the sacred mountain of the wilderness of Sin. Between the two bays with which the sea encloses this peninsula, that mountain rises, a naked granite ridge, with five steep peaks, united into a mighty crown, above the plateau of sandstone which occupies the whole peninsula. The height is 8,000 feet, and the wild and rugged ma.s.s overlooks in sublime solitude the broad and desert flats in the north, and the waves of the sea in the south. The beautiful oasis at the foot of the mountain (Wadi Firan) affords nourishment for a large number of men and beasts.[658] On the old and sacred mountain the Israelites might believe that they approached nearer to their deity; that here thanksgiving and sacrifice for their happy deliverance could best be offered to him. Then the Israelites would pasture their flocks on the slopes and glades of the peninsula. But they may have found but scanty food beside the flocks of the Midianites, and the security from Egypt would be greater, if they removed to a greater distance from that country. On the southern borders of Canaan, at Kadesh and Hormah, they sought better pastures.

Yet they were driven back, and pursued as far as Hormah. After this misadventure, the Israelites, according to the Ephraimitic text, besought the king of Edom to allow them a peaceful pa.s.sage through Edom, "on the road of the king, they would not turn either to the right or the left." Hence the defeat must have been a serious one.[659] The object of this march through Edom can only have been to find new pasture-lands in the Syrian steppes beyond Mount Seir on the east. The wide extent of the Syrian desert would certainly supply sufficient pastures, and the distance from the Nile was a good protection from Egypt. As the Edomites refused the demand, and showed themselves prepared to resist the march by force of arms, the Israelites did not venture to give battle; they preferred to retire to the south, and make a long circuit round the territory of the Edomites, by marching through the whole length of the valley of Arabah southward to Elath, as far as the north-east point of the reed-sea. From this point they pa.s.sed to the other side of Mount Seir, past Punon and Oboth, towards the Arnon, which falls into the Dead Sea. If they could at first maintain themselves on the east, in the desert, the uplands on the left bank of the Jordan were far better than the steppes of the desert. The arms of the Israelites were here more fortunate than on the other side of the Dead Sea. The Amorites of Heshbon, eastward of the Dead Sea, were defeated at Jahaz, and their cities taken. The song which celebrates this victory (p. 473) is old, and above suspicion. From this point, out of the newly-conquered land, from the top of Pisgah--a mountain near Heshbon--Moses is said to have seen the promised land. A second victory over the Amorites lying to the north beyond the Jabbok, the people of Edrei and Ashtaroth Karnaim, opened ample pasture-lands to the Israelites, and also some well-watered valleys on the wide plateau to the east of the Jordan. Their territory now reached from the Arnon northwards to the Jarmuk. Here the nation remained; the greater part tended their flocks as. .h.i.therto, the lesser part applied themselves to agriculture in exceptionally fruitful valleys.

Though a peaceful race of shepherds and unused to arms, the Hebrews had bidden defiance to the strong arm of Pharaoh; with bold resolution they had successfully delivered themselves from a cruel slavery; and had preserved their freedom, their national character, and their religion.

Beyond the borders of Egypt and the reed-sea, the lively perception of their liberation, and the recovery of their ancient mode of life, and of the visible protection of their G.o.d, must have aroused a mighty impulse, especially in their great leader. It was a moment of great elevation.

Together with the valley of the Nile, they had left behind the G.o.ds of Egypt; and they returned to the wors.h.i.+p of their old deity with strengthened and deepened feelings. Thus on Sinai Moses could inculcate the exclusive wors.h.i.+p of Jehovah--a wors.h.i.+p without images--and the consecration of the seventh day.[660] These were commands consciously and diametrically opposed to the mult.i.tude of Egyptian G.o.ds, the variety of their forms and modes of wors.h.i.+p, and the times of their festivals.

In connection with these commands, and the customs of sacrifice in use among the Israelites, regulations were given for purification, and rules, telling how to proceed at the erection of altars, at purifications and expiations, at burnt-offerings, thank-offerings, and offerings of corn and meal; rules which were preserved and developed in the family of Aaron.[661] Even for the establishment of this ritual the contrast to the Egyptian was not without influence. This contrast was in fact so strong that what was best in the Egyptian religion--the belief in the existence of the soul after death, and in its awaking from death to a new life, was not adopted by the Israelites. Of the care shown to the corpses of the dead in Egypt, we find no trace.

We saw what a long series of moral rules were set up in Egypt. For his people Moses collected the foundations of moral and religious law into a simpler, purer, deeper, and more earnest form, in the Ten Commandments.[662] In connecting the moral law with the wors.h.i.+p of Jehovah, its inseparable foundation, and setting it up with pa.s.sionate earnestness as the immediate command of the G.o.d of Israel, Moses imparted to his people that character of religious earnestness, and ethical struggling, which distinguishes their history from that of every other nation. With the decalogue were connected the regulations for peace in the nation, the law of the family, and the avenging of blood.

One who curses father or mother must be put to death. One who strikes father or mother must be put to death. One who strikes a man so that he dies must be put to death. One who has slain a man without intention, by misadventure, must flee to the altar. But if anyone sins against another so as to slay him by craft, thou shalt take him from the altar that he may die. If men strive with one another, and one is injured, thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, foot for foot, burn for burn, bruise for bruise. If any man strike his man-servant or his maid-servant with his staff, and they die under his hand, vengeance must be taken. If thou buyest a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go free. The long service in Egypt was still held in lively remembrance.[663]

Just as the ordinances of Moses for religious wors.h.i.+p again brought into prominence the ancient customs of the Hebrews, purified and developed them, so his regulations for peace, for revenge, and expiation, for injury to the person, and theft, were connected with ancient customs of the children of Jacob, which could hardly have been entirely forgotten in Egypt. As Moses attached his law to the old customs, permeating them with the depth of his own ethical point of view, a certain stock of sayings must have been formed, which were preserved and further developed by the decisions of the heads of the tribes, the leaders of families, and the elders and the priests. The code in Exodus is taken from an old doc.u.ment, though apparently first inserted by the revision.[664]